In his thoughtful and searching account of the writer we know as George Eliot, Philip Davis undertakes a project of which his subject would have approved. Rather than attempt a straightforward biography of the complex and gifted woman who variously passed as Mary Anne Evans, Mary Ann Evans, Marianne Evans, Marian Evans and Marian Evans Lewes (a preoccupation with self image which in itself is suggestive) he considers the evolution of George Eliot, her novelist persona, and how that persona evolves to become what is described in another context as “a presence”, an autonomous authority, affecting both the consciousness of the woman behind it and that of the readers she reaches with her astonishing emotional and psychological range.
Davis, who pioneered the concept of “shared reading” – which aims to encourage reading as a means of self-understanding – is acute on the psychology of the novels, both in their content and on their connection to their author’s life. He shares with Eliot a fascination with “the germ of life” and how it “may develop”. This is a book that will ensure that Eliot’s radical “presence” lives.
• The Transferred Life of George Eliot by Philip Davis is published by OUP (£25). To order a copy for £21.25. go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846
