George Eliot and the Gothic Novel

Royce Mahawatte is a Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London.

• Introduction: 'half-womanish, half-ghostly'- George Eliot and the inheritance of the Gothic Part one: reimagining the genres of feeling 1. 'there was a demon in me': 'Janet's Repentence' and the evangelical Gothic 2. 'with two names written on it': sensation narratives in Adam Bede 3. 'of one texture with the rest of my existence': 'The Lifted Veil' and the tale of the supernatural Part two: uncanny women, fearing men 4. Counterfeit Gothic heroines in The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch 5. Romola and Felix Holt, The Radical: the pursuit of Gothic men Finale: Daniel Deronda - sensationalised society, gothicized self

In this highly engaging book, Royce Mahawatte takes on the great icon of Victorian literary realism, George Eliot, and presents a nuanced and compelling argument for reading her work alongside Gothic fiction. By teasing out the complex and contradictory relationship Eliot had with the Gothic novel, Mahawatte not only offers a fresh take on Eliot's work, but also greatly expands our understanding of the part Gothic played in Victorian literary culture. Dr. Catherine Spooner, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Lancaster University