Overview of Podcast:
This episode offers an introduction to George Eliot and Middlemarch as a way of providing background information on the author and text that are focus of this mini-two part podcast series.
Thesis Statement/Driving Question:
- George Eliot engages with the burgeoning field of medical science with a critical lens through her character Tertius Lydgate, a young medical professional that challenges the inadequate norms of the early Victorian Medical profession with new forms of treatment, care, and the progression of knowledge which reflects the progression seen during George Eliot’s own lifetime.
Topic #1: Bibliographic Information on George Eliot
- Born on November 22, 1819 and passed away on December 22, 1880.
- George Eliot was a pseudonym, birth name was Mary Ann Evans (Jung 763).
- Life partner, George Henry Lewes's son died from spinal tuberculosis (Carpenter 10).
Topic #2: Overview of the history of Middlemarch and Victorian Soceity
- Published in eight instalments from 1871-1872, each instalment called a book.
- BBC did a global survey on best British texts, 47% of respondents named Middlemarch as their number one choice (Gorra).
- Kim Price notes, "in 1841, 1,830 eligible candidates applied for a vacant medical officer position in Lambeth; however, 320 had never been examined in surgery, 323 had never taken an exam in general medicine and further 233 were completely unqualified” (Price 27).
Works Cited:
Carpenter, Mary Wilson. Health, Medicine, and Society in Victorian England. Praeger, 2010.
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996.
Gorra, Michel. “The 25 greatest British novels.” BBC Culture. Dec 4, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151204-why-middlemarch-is-the-greatest-british-
Jung, Daun. “Critical Names Matter: ‘Currer Bell,’ ‘George Eliot,’ and ‘Mrs.Gaskell.’” Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 45, no. 4, Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 763–81, doi:10.1017/S1060150317000201.
Price, Kim. Medical Negligence in Victorian Britain: The Crisis of Care Under the English Poor Law, C. 1834-1900. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
