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SOURCE: Hockberg, Shifra. “Nomenclature and the Historical Matrix of Felix Holt.” English Language Notes 31, no. 2 (December 1993): 46-56.
In the following essay, Hockberg explores Eliot's use of names in Felix Holt to encode literary and historical references.
Felix Holt, one of the least read of George Eliot's works, provides a fascinating example of the ways in which the novelist uses onomastics to encode historical and literary allusions into her text. Jerome Meckier, for instance, suggests that Eliot's novel “rewrite[s] the Book of Esther for Victorian audiences,” with Esther Lyon, like her Scriptural counterpart, functioning as a potential savior of her people.1 In a similar vein, Donald D. Stone notes the Byronic reference in Harold Transome's first name, as well as the novel's satire of Esther's romantic obsession with Byronic heroes.2 Nonetheless, the full implications and relevance of the names of the main male characters in Felix Holt—Felix...
This section contains 4,014 words (approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page) |
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