That the writing of Romola cost the author much we have from her own testimony: “I took unspeakable pains in preparing to write Romola — neglecting nothing that I could find that would help me to what I may call the “idiom” of Florence, in the largest sense one could stretch the world to.” Romola de' Bardi – Daughter of classical scholar Bardo de' Bardi who lives in Florence. She has an insular, non-religious upbringing, immersed in classical studies. She falls in love with Tito Melema and marries him, but she begins to rebel after gradually realizing his true character. Girolamo Savonarola later becomes a great influence in her life. The Florence of Savonarola— a world of vibrant life, evil, and tumult overshadowed by the dark figure of the great Dominican — is the scene of this unusual novel by George Eliot. George Eliot herself described her labour in writing the novel as one about which she could "swear by every sentence as having been written with my best blood, such as it is, and with the most ardent care for veracity of which my nature is capable". [7] She reportedly spent eighteen months contemplating and researching the novel, [5] including several excursions to Florence. The attention to detail exhibited in the novel was a focus of both praise and criticism. Anthony Trollope, having read the first instalment of Romola, expressed wonder at the toil Eliot must have "endured in getting up the work", but also cautioned her against excessive erudition, urging her not to "fire too much over the heads of her readers". [7]

Eliot could not have chosen a time of greater upheaval and change: the death of the powerful Lorenzo de Medici, invasion by Charles VIII of France and the spectacular rise and fall of the charismatic priest Savonarola. Her young heroine Romola journeys from naïve and cloistered daughter to gradual disillusionment with both Savonarola and her unscrupulous and self-serving husband. A great leap into the open-endedness of another human being” is the striking image Clare Carlisle uses to describe marriage at the opening of her perceptive and suggestive book. Throughout European fiction of the 19th century – Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, Hedda Gabler – the risk of catastrophe following that leap is a persistent theme, in which badly matched women become imprisoned victims of an institution that legally restricts their rights and threatens social scandal if they betray its code.

Dino de' Bardi (aka Fra Luca) – Estranged son of Bardo de' Bardi. His father had hoped that Dino would also study classical literature, but instead Dino became a Dominican friar, estranging him from his non-religious family. Just before his death, he warns Romola against a future marriage that will bring her peril. Romola is the fourth of Eliot’s full-length novels. It is set in Florence between the death of Lorenzo de Medici in April 1492 and the execution of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola for heresy in May 1498. Thus, it takes in the first turbulent years of a republican government under Savonarola after 60 years of autocratic government by the Medicis, and Charles VIII’s invasion of Italy in 1494. Romola, the hero and amanuensis of her blind scholarly father, marries an opportunistic rogue and ends up isolated when her love for him turns to contempt and she furthermore loses trust in Savonarola. The discovery of duty in self-sacrifice is her solace. Girolamo Savonarola – Charismatic Dominican preacher. He preaches to Florentines about religious piety and upcoming upheaval in Florence and the Church. Romola feels her life being guided by his influence, both direct and broad. Savonarola inspires the people of Florence at first, but the continuing hardship endured by the city leads to his persecution. The action occurs between the years 1492 and 1498, most eventful years in the history of the Republic of Florence … At the opening of the story Lorenzo the Magnificent, one of the most notable members of the Medici family, is not yet dead.

Bonaparte, Felicia. 1979. The Triptych and the Cross: The Central Myths of George Eliot’s Poetic Imagination. New York: New York University Press. Later, as he walks through the crowded streets, Tito rescues Tessa from some jostling revelers. When he leaves her, he meets the strange monk he had seen gazing at him from the crowd earlier in the afternoon. The monk, Fra Luca, gives him a note that has been brought from a pilgrim in the Near East; Tito wonders why he finds the monk’s face so familiar. The note is from Baldassare, who pleads with Tito to rescue him from slavery. Unwilling to give up his happy life in Florence, Tito ignores his foster father’s plea.Bardo de' Bardi – Blind classical scholar living in Florence. He has one estranged son, Dino, and a daughter, Romola. Bardo is a descendant of the once-powerful Bardi family, but is living in poverty with his daughter, who helps him with his classical studies. He is an ally of the Medici family. He maintains a classical library, and tries to preserve it beyond his own death. If you do not want us to use your data for our or third parties you will have the opportunity to withhold your consent to this when you provide your details to us on the form on which we collect your data. Romola (1862–63) is a historical novel written by English author Mary Ann Evans under the pen name of George Eliot set in the fifteenth century. It is "a deep study of life in the city of Florence from an intellectual, artistic, religious, and social point of view". [1] The story takes place amidst actual historical events during the Italian Renaissance, and includes in its plot several notable figures from Florentine history. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot. Photograph: Wordsworth Classics The one to make you laugh out loud

Niccolò Machiavelli – In this story, Machiavelli often talks with Tito and other Florentines (particularly in Nello's shop) about all matters political and philosophical in Florence. His observations add a commentary to the ongoing events in the city. This edition in Senate House Library is from Bernhard Tauchnitz’s Collection of British Authors, a series begun in 1841 ‘to promote the literary interest of my Anglo-Saxon cousins, by rendering English literature as universally known as possible beyond the limits of the British Empire’. Eliot appeared in the Tauchnitz series in the 1860s alongside Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, Margaret Oliphant, Mrs Henry Wood and other popular writers.

Has as a study

set in Italy and it would appear Eliot wanted to impress upon people that she had seen it, but I never got the feeling she knew it, Rufus Sewell as Will Ladislaw in the 1994 TV adaptation of Middlemarch. Photograph: Shaun Higson/Culture/Alamy If you only read one, it should be Blumberg, Ilana M. 2013. Sacrificial Value: Beyond the Cash Nexus in George Eliot’s Romola. In Economic Women: Essays on Desire and Dispossession in Nineteenth-Century British Culture, ed. Lana L. Dalley and Jill Rappoport, 60–76. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Romola is the only work by George Eliot in the Durning-Lawrence Library, which is largely devoted to Sir Francis Bacon in the widest sense. It does also hold a few specimens of current literature read by its Victorian/Edwardian owners. There was nothing “open” or provisional about her ménage, however. Rigorously identifying herself outside her writings as “Mrs Lewes” (rather than Mary Ann Evans, the name she was christened with), Eliot can sound sanctimonious in her pronouncements about monogamy and her condemnation of “light and easily broken ties”. She made her choice, and fortunately her leap proved a very successful one – Lewes may have been “tactless, vain and a little vulgar” (as a contemporary called him), but he also made an unfailingly loyal, kindly, protective and cheerful partner, who negotiated Eliot’s depressions sensitively and whose tastes and interests she shared. His successor, Cross, positively worshipped her. a b Richard Hutton, The Spectator, 18 July 1863 in George Eliot: Godless Woman by Brian Spittles (Basingstoke, Hampshire; London: Macmillan Press, 1993) ISBN 0-333-57218-1.Savonarola was the overshadowing figure of Florentine life at that time, as he is the overshadowing figure of Romola. Political turmoil erupts in Florence. Five supporters of the Medici family are sentenced to death, including Romola's godfather, Bernardo del Nero. She learns that Tito has played a role in their arrest. Romola pleads with Savonarola to intervene, but he refuses. Romola's faith in Savonarola and Florence is shaken, and once again she leaves the city. Meanwhile, Florence is under papal pressure to expel Savonarola. His arrest is effected by rioters, who then turn their attention to several of the city's political elite. Tito becomes a target of the rioters, but he escapes the mob by diving into the Arno River. However, upon leaving the river, Tito is killed by Baldassarre. a b Bonaparte, Felicia (1979). The Triptych and the Cross: The Central Myths of George Eliot's Poetic Imagination. New York: New York University Press.