George Eliot Archive - Newspaper Section

Kaylen Michaelis Author

07/28/2020 Added

33 Plays

Description

An overview of the online George Eliot Archive and a closer look at the newspaper articles that were published about her.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.815]Hey guys, my name is Kaylen Michaelis
[00:00:02.780]and I work on the online George Eliot Archive
[00:00:04.700]under the direction of Dr. Beverly Rilett.
[00:00:06.999]There's a whole team of people who go in
[00:00:10.257]and work on this project including Mikie
[00:00:12.601]who will also be doing a presentation for
[00:00:14.516]UCARE. And so basically the archive is a
[00:00:20.059]repository for all of George Eliot's works
[00:00:22.390]and people's analysis of anything on her
[00:00:26.772]works and even her life, basically anything
[00:00:28.857]that relates to George Eliot.
[00:00:30.341]So who is George Eliot?
[00:00:32.031]She is a famous British author, some of
[00:00:35.509]her more well known works are Adam Bede,
[00:00:37.411]Scenes of Clerical Life, Romola.
[00:00:39.339]She has a very interesting story.
[00:00:41.555]She fell in love with a man named George
[00:00:43.462]Henry Lewes, however, he was married even
[00:00:46.277]though at the time when George Eliot and
[00:00:48.601]him started anything. Him and his wife
[00:00:52.246]had been separated for many years.
[00:00:53.866]But she sacrificed her reputation for love,
[00:00:58.339]and she started a life with him.
[00:01:00.150]But this was obviously in the mid 1800s
[00:01:03.203]so it was very looked down up for her to
[00:01:05.760]have this life with a married man.
[00:01:07.999]So when she started publishing, she didn't
[00:01:10.893]want to use her real name because of that
[00:01:12.938]reputation.
[00:01:13.974]She was afraid that it would affect who
[00:01:15.800]would be reading it, basically.
[00:01:18.883]So, she decided to use a pen name,
[00:01:22.527]George Eliot.
[00:01:23.712]It wasn't because she was a woman because
[00:01:26.276]there were many recognized authors during
[00:01:28.856]this time period.
[00:01:29.605]There's Jane Austen, the Brontes, but
[00:01:32.355]again because of her reputation for
[00:01:35.958]marrying a married man.
[00:01:37.668]So the goal of this archive is to make all
[00:01:41.280]her works, the commentary by any of the
[00:01:44.324]people that were, you know, analyzing her
[00:01:48.988]works, any newspapers about her, pretty
[00:01:53.616]much anything that relates to her.
[00:01:56.057]We have some pretty weird ones that we're
[00:01:58.973]planning on adding to the archive or are
[00:02:00.976]already added.
[00:02:01.738]So we want to make all of this
[00:02:03.517]accessible to students, researchers, and
[00:02:05.121]teachers.
[00:02:06.157]A couple of things that we really focus on
[00:02:09.258]is her travels, her friends, and how her
[00:02:12.330]life came into play in her works.
[00:02:13.709]On the archive, we have travel maps that
[00:02:16.698]you can access and see where she went
[00:02:19.121]during her trips to Europe, because she
[00:02:21.073]took several trips throughout Europe.
[00:02:22.616]And what time period that was.
[00:02:25.089]We are also working on a relationship web
[00:02:28.398]that we will eventually be putting on the
[00:02:30.064]archive, which is basically where you can
[00:02:32.516]see who she interacted with, who she was
[00:02:35.273]closest to, and basically, you know, see
[00:02:39.079]her circle of friends and aquaintances.
[00:02:42.235]On the archive, uhh I... my personal role
[00:02:47.393]is that I go through all of these newspaper
[00:02:49.795]articles that we have gathered, and I read
[00:02:52.637]them and I catalog them.
[00:02:54.161]So, I get all the important information
[00:02:56.979]about these newspaper articles.
[00:02:58.610]I summarize them and then I put them
[00:03:01.058]into two separate collections either
[00:03:02.069]Life of George Eliot or Works of George
[00:03:03.983]Eliot, so that when users come onto the
[00:03:06.730]website they can pretty much already,
[00:03:09.270]I mean, its easier for them to find what
[00:03:11.789]they are looking for.
[00:03:12.554]If they're looking for something about her
[00:03:14.024]life, they can go into that section, if
[00:03:16.574]they're looking about her work they can go
[00:03:17.950]into the other section.
[00:03:18.919]So, basically I do that.
[00:03:21.590]I also, when I'm going through these articles
[00:03:23.686]I look for connections between her travels
[00:03:26.658]between acquaintances, anything that could
[00:03:28.879]be really interesting.
[00:03:29.915]A lot of umm... There is a lot of gossip
[00:03:32.412]kind of stuff that gets put in the newspapers.
[00:03:35.013]So there's like a lot of stuff about who
[00:03:38.465]George Eliot talked to and there's a lot
[00:03:41.974]of people who wrote stuff about George
[00:03:44.964]Eliot and then they published it.
[00:03:47.271]Some of it was, you know, praising her,
[00:03:50.712]sometimes it was like critiquing her.
[00:03:53.892]It kind of depended, but there's a lot of
[00:03:57.060]that good stuff, and that's really
[00:03:57.960]fascinating to researchers.
[00:03:59.641]A couple things that I've also done for
[00:04:02.384]the archive is that I look over all the
[00:04:05.395]newspaper advertisements too and I sort
[00:04:08.635]them, in case it's also interesting to
[00:04:11.987]other people.
[00:04:12.874]There's a few things like George Eliot
[00:04:15.429]Mushroom Ketchup, so a few products that
[00:04:17.813]got named after her which she didn't
[00:04:19.342]really have anything to do with.
[00:04:20.512]The company was just like, oh George Eliot
[00:04:25.515]is a really well known name, so we'll use
[00:04:27.204]her name on the product and that will
[00:04:29.668]probably help increase profit.
[00:04:31.293]And so that we will also be getting on
[00:04:34.073]the archive eventually.
[00:04:35.070]Some very interesting stuff.
[00:04:36.502]So I think what I'm going to do is I am
[00:04:39.065]just going to share a couple of my favorite
[00:04:41.231]articles that I have found.
[00:04:42.876]Some of them get really gossipy and it's
[00:04:46.336]really fun.
[00:04:48.512]Alright, here is one of my favorite articles
[00:04:50.588][Start of article] When not very long before her death,
[00:04:53.106]George Eliot payed her second visit to Florence.
[00:04:55.292]Her first having been made some years
[00:04:57.746]previously in order to collect materials
[00:04:59.230]and suggestions for Romola.
[00:05:00.960]She dined with Thomas Adolphus Trollope,
[00:05:03.778]the well-known historian of the
[00:05:05.153]commonwealth of Florence and one of the
[00:05:06.747]most delightful hosts in that or any other
[00:05:09.540]city, at his villa at Ricorboli.
[00:05:11.519]When dinner was announced he reserved to
[00:05:13.747]himself the honor of taking down George Eliot.
[00:05:15.804]In the course of the evening, an Englishman,
[00:05:17.768]who had been made a count by the
[00:05:19.189]Duke of Lucca for some twopenny-halfpenny
[00:05:21.552]service rendered at last seized an
[00:05:23.374]opportunity to whisper.
[00:05:24.436]"Trollope, I have a crow to pluck with you.
[00:05:26.373]You took George Eliot into dinner,
[00:05:28.152]forgetting that my wife was one of your
[00:05:29.698]guests. After all, rank is rank."
[00:05:31.852]Trollope was quite equal to the occasion.
[00:05:34.055]"Oh, my offense is rank!" he exclaimed.
[00:05:36.884]"But I think you must forgive it this once,
[00:05:38.924]my dear fellow, as I shall not have many
[00:05:40.588]chances of repeating it."
[00:05:41.676]When George Eliot heard the story afterwards
[00:05:44.681]she said in her suavest manner, "Poor dear
[00:05:47.097]lady! Mr. Trollope, you ought to have
[00:05:48.855]taken her down."
[00:05:49.928]"I took her husband down instead,"
[00:05:51.429]was Trollope's reply. [end of article]
[00:05:52.715]I just love Victorians they are so sassy.
[00:05:55.396]Next up on newspaper favorites is an
[00:05:57.662]article titled "A Trouble on Christmas Eve"
[00:05:59.672][Start of article] It was Christmas Eve!
[00:06:00.720]A miserable Christmas Eve indeed, in which
[00:06:02.814]my ill humor,
[00:06:03.488]that had been pent up all day ,
[00:06:04.833]wanted only the slightest provocation
[00:06:06.336]to break out.
[00:06:07.027]As the rain was still pelting down,
[00:06:09.021]we had all of us,
[00:06:09.760]Mr. Coillard, the ladies, and myself
[00:06:11.454]taken shelter in one of the wagons.
[00:06:13.345]My friends were conversing;
[00:06:14.723]I was huddled up, morosely silent
[00:06:16.423]and nursing my spleen.
[00:06:18.069]I do not know how it happened,
[00:06:19.909]but Madame Coillard began to talk
[00:06:21.753]in praise of George Elliot.
[00:06:22.845]The utterance of that name was like
[00:06:24.433]a spark falling upon gunpowder.
[00:06:26.137]Turning to Madame Coillard,
[00:06:28.106]I told her that George Elliot wrote
[00:06:29.745]nothing but nonsense, for her
[00:06:31.285]George Elliot was only a woman,
[00:06:32.548]and women, when the took up a pen,
[00:06:34.241]could only write nonsense.
[00:06:35.761]Madame Coillard, hurt at my remark,
[00:06:38.092]and perhaps still more at the aggressive
[00:06:39.419]tone in which it was uttered, tried
[00:06:40.975]to argue the point; but my only reply
[00:06:42.746]was that women were not born to be
[00:06:44.400]writers, that when they attempted it the
[00:06:46.122]result was but foolishness, and that there
[00:06:47.811]vocation was to attend to their household
[00:06:49.439]and not to write books.
[00:06:50.566]Our discussion got warm; but it ended
[00:06:52.617]when I saw upon her usually placid
[00:06:54.368]features an expression of pain and
[00:06:56.274]vexation, which caused me to get up
[00:06:58.531]and rush out for a solitary ramble.
[00:07:00.669]Directly I was alone I wondered at myself
[00:07:03.178]and tried long and uselessly to explain
[00:07:05.007]the reason of this spirit of contradiction
[00:07:06.960]which had of late sprung up within me,
[00:07:08.806]belying my beat feelings, and running
[00:07:11.071]counter to my cool judgement.
[00:07:12.506]For I hasten to say that I am an immense
[00:07:14.557]admirer of George Eliot. [end of article]
[00:07:16.050]I just wanted to include that one because
[00:07:18.499]I find the guy's character so interesting,
[00:07:21.048]the fact that he purposely published that
[00:07:24.898]in a newspaper makes me laugh so much.
[00:07:27.658]Alright guys, so that's it for the newspaper
[00:07:31.189]articles that I'm going to share.
[00:07:33.175]I hope you guys enjoyed them
[00:07:34.679]as much as I did.
[00:07:35.954]I think that online platforms such as the
[00:07:38.888]online archive for George Eliot are important
[00:07:41.742]to be a place of discussion and a place to
[00:07:44.907]share literature.
[00:07:46.052]And I'm really happy to be a part of that.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

George Eliot Archive - Newspaper Section

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments