George Eliot Archive UCARE Presentation

Michaela Brown Author

07/30/2020 Added

10 Plays

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This presentation will discuss the online George Eliot Archive, specifically focusing on my work with the Commentary by Contemporaries section.

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[00:00:02.210]Hi everyone my name is Michaela Brown,
[00:00:03.718]and I am one of the research assistants for the George Eliot Archive,
[00:00:06.887]which is what I will be presenting on today.
[00:00:09.634]The graphic on this cover slide here is our official logo
[00:00:12.458]and was designed by my colleague Alexis Stoffers.
[00:00:15.788]The “George Eliot” on the top is actually the signature of George Eliot herself,
[00:00:20.106]which is a really cool detail that Alexis included for us.
[00:00:24.973]Before I get started talking about the archive,
[00:00:26.959]I wanted to provide some background on George Eliot.
[00:00:30.505]George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in Warwickshire, England in 1819.
[00:00:35.458]She is one of the most prolific writers of the Victorian era,
[00:00:38.889]known for being a novelist, poet, journalist, and translator.
[00:00:43.208]She published seven novels throughout her lifetime,
[00:00:45.619]some of the most popular being Adam Bede, Scenes of Clerical Life, and Middlemarch,
[00:00:51.107]which was described by novelists Martin Amis and Julian Barnes
[00:00:54.507]as the “greatest novel in the English language,” which is some pretty high praise.
[00:01:00.191]Though there were other women writers who earned prestige during this era
[00:01:03.528]such as Jane Austen, the Brontes, etcetera, Mary Ann Evans ultimately decided
[00:01:08.689]to adopt the pseudonym George Eliot under which to publish her novels.
[00:01:13.172]There are several possible reasons why George Eliot used a pen name.
[00:01:16.425]Maybe she wanted to stray from the stereotypical
[00:01:19.145]romantic subject matter of female-authored books
[00:01:22.163]during this time, she could’ve wanted her fiction judged separately
[00:01:25.876]from her works as a critic or editor,
[00:01:28.556]and finally, and probably most significantly, she may have forgone using her birth name
[00:01:33.093]in order to avoid scandal surrounding her private life,
[00:01:36.481]mainly, her affair with George Henry Lewes.
[00:01:39.912]Lewes, a photographer (Lewes was not a photographer) philosopher and critic,
[00:01:43.449]was married and had four children with a woman
[00:01:45.843]named Agnes Jervis when he and Eliot met in 1851.
[00:01:50.428]However, Lewes and Jervis’ union was an open one,
[00:01:52.809]resulting in Lewes and Eliot’s relationship that ultimately spanned over twenty years.
[00:01:59.998]Now we’ll dive into the archive itself.
[00:02:01.950]As it states on the homepage of the George Eliot Archive, our site
[00:02:05.662]“provides free access to all of Eliot's writings: the standard "Cabinet Edition"
[00:02:10.159]of the novels and short stories, her complete poetry, her translations,
[00:02:14.148]and all her non-fiction essays.
[00:02:16.561]These documents are searchable and downloadable.
[00:02:18.868]Visitors also will find hundreds of documents pertaining to George Eliot,
[00:02:22.284]including reviews of her works by her contemporaries,
[00:02:25.193]early biographical studies by those who knew her,
[00:02:27.760]and all known portraits created during Eliot's lifetime.”
[00:02:31.914]Currently, the archive offers many features, as you can see,
[00:02:34.915]including all of George Eliot’s writings,
[00:02:36.764]interactive maps of Eliot and Lewes’ travels, interactive chronology,
[00:02:41.114]commentary by contemporaries and an image gallery
[00:02:44.028]that features portraits of Eliot,
[00:02:45.462]as well as illustrations from some of her novels and poems.
[00:02:49.561]I’ve included some screenshots of the Archive
[00:02:51.231]so you can see firsthand some things that we offer.
[00:02:55.934]In the top left corner is a picture of the interactive map
[00:02:58.941]highlighting Lewes and Eliot’s many trips to Italy.
[00:03:02.085]Next to it is a list of some of Eliot’s fiction,
[00:03:04.395]all of which are available to be selected and read right there on our website.
[00:03:09.052]And at the bottom is an example of the interactive chronology feature.
[00:03:13.731]By clicking on a year, then a specific month,
[00:03:15.632]a list of events and communication pops up.
[00:03:18.650]As you can see, in April of 1866,
[00:03:21.298]Eliot wrote to her friend Sarah Hennell
[00:03:23.221]and also corresponded with her publisher, Blackwood.
[00:03:26.904]I think this feature is probably my favorite one on the Archive,
[00:03:30.737]mainly for how creative it is.
[00:03:33.915]It is creative as well as being super informational.
[00:03:39.252]If you would like to explore the Archive in its entirety
[00:03:41.501]I have also provided a link on the bottom of this slide.
[00:03:48.698]This summer, my work has been specifically focused on
[00:03:51.414]finding and uploading more commentary by George Eliot’s contemporaries,
[00:03:54.903]meaning various academics and readers
[00:03:56.915]who wrote about Eliot during her lifetime or shortly after her death
[00:04:00.231]in December of 1880.
[00:04:02.920]While the section was live prior to this summer,
[00:04:05.286]throughout this UCARE session,
[00:04:06.737]my colleague Kaylen and I added roughly 400 documents
[00:04:10.583]to the original 200 featured on the Archive,
[00:04:13.585]so it has grown exponentially.
[00:04:16.617]The George Eliot Archive’s Commentary by Contemporaries section
[00:04:19.456]features books, articles, reviews and more
[00:04:22.015]written during George Eliot’s lifetime about her and her many works.
[00:04:26.615]The section is divided into two categories:
[00:04:28.717]George Eliot life and George Eliot works.
[00:04:31.258]While there is frequent overlap
[00:04:32.693]between Eliot’s personal life and her writing,
[00:04:34.571]most commentary focuses specifically on one aspect or the other.
[00:04:39.571]To the left on the slide there are a couple examples
[00:04:41.454]of the types of works I’ve been collecting.
[00:04:43.683]The above image is the cover of Charles S. Olcott’s 1911 book
[00:04:49.021]“George Eliot: Scenes and People in Her Novels.”
[00:04:52.895]Below is the cover page of an essay by Leslie Stephen
[00:04:56.458]titled “George Eliot’s two marriages” written in 1886.
[00:05:01.309]This is a good example of the life/works dichotomy,
[00:05:03.840]and as you can tell from the titles alone
[00:05:05.895]the former piece falls into the “works” category
[00:05:08.308]and the latter is in “life.”
[00:05:10.526]I also think it’s really neat that you can see the age on these documents.
[00:05:15.243]For example, the fact that the book cover on top,
[00:05:18.378]though you can’t really tell, is velvet,
[00:05:20.997]and you can see the discoloration on the bottom page.
[00:05:26.130]I think this physicality really reminds us that
[00:05:28.879]what we’re including on this Archive are in fact pieces of history.
[00:05:35.687]Finally, I wanted to conclude the presentation with a preview
[00:05:38.125]of what’s upcoming for the Archive and our research team,
[00:05:41.096]starting with the George Eliot relationship web,
[00:05:43.422]which will detail Eliot’s familial, platonic, and romantic relationships
[00:05:47.340]throughout her life. Like the chronology,
[00:05:49.083]it will contain an interactive aspect
[00:05:51.050]where visitors can click on a specific image or name
[00:05:53.523]to learn more about the individual and how he or she influenced Eliot.
[00:05:58.215]Like I mentioned before, the Archive currently has an interactive map
[00:06:01.313]featuring Eliot and Lewes’ travels to Italy.
[00:06:03.889]Next up, their trips to Germany and Spain will also be added.
[00:06:08.593]Additionally, we hope to eventually provide access
[00:06:10.914]to all of Eliot’s written correspondence in a collection known as the “Cross Letters.”
[00:06:15.840]Finally, one of George Eliot’s sister websites,
[00:06:18.828]George Eliot Scholars, will be up and running
[00:06:21.205]by the end of this summer.
[00:06:23.350]This website will serve as a forum for academics
[00:06:25.462]to submit and discuss their work as it relates to Eliot.
[00:06:29.150]That’s it for my George Eliot Archive presentation.
[00:06:32.541]Thanks for watching everyone!

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George Eliot Archive UCARE Presentation

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