The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-12-05
GEORGE ELIOT AssAlLED.

The Character 81 . womsu Novelist Dis.
seessd By . Woman Essayiss-Under-
bred and Proviaeial. Success aud Adu.
lstiou Spoil Her sud Robbed Her OF Her
Beautiful Simplicity and Sincerity OF
Character.
1t has often been said-by persons
with taste for the piQuant-that the
best biographer of an eminent man or
woman would be. not a friend or SYM
pathizer, but someone ION the other
side" What the result should be Of
such an arrangement may be seen by an
article-all too short-in the Woman at
Home, in which Mrs. Lynn Linton sets
forth. ina First Meeting with George
Eliot" her estimation of that lady.
Underbred and Provincial.
After passing in brisk review some
score Of other eminent women whom
Mrs. Lynn Linton has met at one time
or another, she says:
1t was at John Chapman's that first
met George Eliot-then Marian Evans,
having adopted neither her pseudonym
nor her style and title of George Lewes'
wife. Confession is good for the soul"
ny short-siShted prejudices with re-
spect to this-tO be-celebrated person.
These were her undeveloped as well as
her insurgent days. She was known to
be learned, Industrious, thoughtful,
noteworthy: but she was not yet the
Great Genius Of her age. nor philosO-
pher bracketed with Plato and Kant.
nor was her personality held to be SUI
perior to the law of the land. nor was
she recognized as a conventional gentle
woman-in those days, indeed, she was
emphatically not that. She was essen
TALLY underbred and provincial. She
held her hands and arms kangaroo
fashion; was badly dressed; had an un
washed, unbrushed, unkempt look alts-
gether; and she assumed tone of
superiority over me which l was not
then aware was warranted by her un-
doubted leadership.
A Glimpse Into tho Gard House."
Still. this closer acquaintanceship
came about later on, after Marian
Evans flight with George Lewes."
Considering all things, 1t Is rather mag
nificent of Mrs. Lynn Linton to confess
that she called on them. "by their joint
request" for, at the end of her article,
she has nothing but blame for this mar
riage with George Lewes, which fell in
to ruins like the card-housc which In
reality the whole thing was" But the
first impression Of George Eliot In her
card-house is a pleasing one:
They were In lodgings In st. johns
Wood, and the aureole Of their new love
was around them. There was none OF
the pretense of sanctioned union which
came afterwards-none OF the some
what pretentious assumption of super
ior morality which was born Of her sue
cess. She was frank. genial. natural
and brimful of happiness. The con-
sciousness that she had finally made
her choice and cast the die which de-
termined her fate gave her nobility
of expression and grandeur Of bearing
which she had not had when I first
knew her.
Artificial. Prcntertious. Unreal"
Mrs. Lynn Linton then loved, hon.
cred and admired her. But not for
long:
Had she always remained on that
level she would have been the grandest
woman of this or any other age. But
success and adulatiOn spoilt her, and
destroyed all simplicity, all sincerity Of
character. She grew to be artificial,
posee, pretentious, unreal. She lived
an unreal life all through, ,bothmentally
and socially; and In her endeavor to
harmonize two irreconcilables-to be at
once conventional and insurgent-the
upholder of the sanctity of marriage
whileliving as the wife of married
man-the self-reliant iaw-breaker and
the eager postulant for the recognition
granted only to the covenanted-she
lost every trace of that finer freedom
and whole-heartedness which has been
so remarkable in the beginning Of her
connection with Iewes. She was a
made woman-not in the French sense
but made by self manipulation, as one
makes a statue or q vase. i have never
known anyone who seemed to me SO
purely artificial as George Eliot.
She took a fine type for imitation;
but the result was not a flesh-and- blood
woman. Not a line Of spOntaneity was
left In her,. Never for one instant
did she forget her self-created self
never did she throw aside the trappings
or the airs of the benign Sibyl. Her
soft low voice was pitched in one level
and monotonous key, and her delibera-
ton of speech was trifie irritating to
the eager whose flint was already fired.
Her gestures were as measured as her
words; her attitudes as restrained as
her tones. She was SO consciously
George Eliot" so interpenetrated
head and heel, inside and out, with the
sense of her Importance. as the great
novelist and profound thinker of her
generation, as to make her society a
little overwhelming, leaving on baser
creatures the impression of having
been rolled very fiat, indeed.
Jealous and Exacting." .-
Among the other indictments which
Mrs. Lynn Linton brings against
George Eliot-there are a good many
more in the two pages devoted to the
SUBJECTS this:
With all her studied restraint OF
manner, George Eliot had a large
amount of what the French call tenn
perament. AS lover she was both
Jealous and exacting, and the "farfall-
one amoroso"whom she had captured
was brought pretty faulty to his bear
ings. II even he went so far as Biz
mingham to lecture. he had to return
home that night-as she quite gravely
said to lady in my presence:
II should not think Of allowing
George to stay away night from me-"