I suppose a pre-cursor of Middlemarch, this centres on the 1832 general election, which seems to have post-dated some electoral reform.
Lots of George Eliot themes – Felix Holt, a weakly drawn (to me) idealistic character, his love for the foundling Esther, maybe more Dickensian, who renounces fortune to marry him.
Perhaps the most satisfying characterisation is of Mrs Transome, the mother of the rather improbable Radical candidate in the election – a fading and vain beauty who understands the compromises she undertook in loving another man (his father) many years ago (Dickensian also, Miss Haversham??).
One of those novels I am pleased to have read (we bought it in 1979 and it has sat unread on the bookcase since then), but probably won’t read again.
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