Felix Holt, the Radical by George Eliot

First published: 1866

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: 1831-1833

Locale: Rural Midland England

Principal characters

• Felix Holt, the Radical, an educated artisan
• Harold Transome, the heir to Transome Court and a Radical candidate for Parliament
• Mrs. Transome, his mother
• Esther Lyon, a refined young woman
• Rufus Lyon, her father and a dissenting minister
• Matthew Jermyn, a lawyer
• Mr. Johnson, another lawyer hired by Jermyn
• Philip Debarry, a Tory candidate for Parliament
• Sir Maximus Debarry, his father and the owner of Treby Manor
• The Reverend Augustus Debarry, his brother
• The Reverend John Lingon, Mrs. Transome’s brother
• Henry Scaddon (alias Maurice Christian Bycliffe), a servant in the Debarry household

The Story:

Mrs. Transome, who long held Transome Court together in spite of financial and legal difficulties and an incompetent husband, eagerly awaits the return of Harold, her younger son. Harold, who was building up a fortune in Smyrna for the preceding fifteen years, is called home to take his place as heir to Transome Court after the death of his weak older brother, Durfey. Harold, whose wife is dead, also brings with him a young son.

Mrs. Transome is soon disappointed by Harold. Although he is generous with money and renovates the shabby mansion, he is not willing to respect Mrs. Transome’s wishes for a genteel country life, particularly when he announces that he intends to run for Parliament as a Radical candidate. To his mother, he seems to show a surprising knowledge and shrewdness about contemporary English life. In his campaign, he receives the support of his family’s lawyer, Matthew Jermyn, and his uncle, the Reverend John Lingon. Neither had thought of deserting the Tory colors before his arrival.

More understandably committed to the Radical cause is Rufus Lyon, the local dissenting minister. One day he receives a visit from Mrs. Holt, one of his parishioners, who complains that her son deliberately stopped the business in patent medicines that she and her late husband painstakingly established. Her son, Felix, claims that the business is fraudulent; Mrs. Holt, on the other hand, is convinced that God would not allow a fraudulent business to prosper. The minister later sends for young Felix, whom he finds highly intelligent, energetic, honest, and independent. Although well educated, Felix is working as a watchmaker in order to feel close to the people. The two men soon became close friends. At the Lyons’ home, Felix also meets Rufus’s daughter Esther, a slight, refined girl educated abroad, who is now teaching the daughters of the rich and reading Lord Byron’s poems. The energetic and socially conscious Felix rails at Esther’s refinement and at her reading of romantic fantasies, but as time passes, a strange attraction between the two begins to grow. Esther, although she does not know it at the time, is not the daughter of Rufus Lyon. Her mother was a Frenchwoman, alone and destitute, whom Rufus found wandering the English streets. Her soldier husband sent for her, but he died before she could find him. With her child, she is befriended by Rufus, who gives up a successful post in order to continue to be with her and who later marries her.

Harold, beginning his election campaign, leaves the organizing to his lawyer, Matthew Jermyn. Jermyn hires another lawyer, Mr. Johnson, to go to a workers’ pub and stir the men into active support of the Radical candidate. Felix is in the pub at the time. Although a Radical, he objects strongly to the rabble-rousing technique used by Johnson and carries his protest directly to Harold. Although sympathetic to Felix’s point of view, Harold feels somewhat indebted to Jermyn, who helped his mother retain her property through difficult years and an earlier lawsuit. While walking home through the woods, Felix finds a purse belonging to Christian, one of the Debarry servants; as a practical joke, the purse was stolen from his pocket and tossed away while Christian was asleep in the woods. Along with the purse are some papers belonging to Philip Debarry, the Conservative candidate for Parliament.

When Felix takes the papers to Rufus, his friend is amazed to discover evidence that Christian is the first husband of Rufus’s French wife and the father of Esther. Through Jermyn, however, Rufus learns that Christian is really a scoundrel named Henry Scaddon who, in order to save himself, exchanged identities with Maurice Christian Bycliffe, Esther’s real father, just before Bycliffe’s death. Jermyn also knows that the Bycliffe line established Esther as the real heiress of Transome Court, should an old and senile Transome, who moved to Treby, die. Although Jermyn keeps his information for possible use against the Transome family, Rufus tells his daughter of her origins. Meanwhile, Harold continues campaigning, and the friendship between Esther and Felix grows.

As Felix fears, the workers riot on the day of the election. Felix, hoping to quell the riot, heads it for a time in a futile effort to lead the workers away from the town. Unsuccessful in his purpose, he is charged with killing a constable. The old Transome is also trampled in the riot. Esther is legally the heiress of Transome Court. Harold, who loses the election, now turns his attention to Transome Court. Discovering that Jermyn and Johnson, Jermyn’s henchman, were cheating the estate for years, he decides to get rid of Jermyn at once and sue him. Jermyn tries to avoid the suit by telling Harold that the estate really belongs to Esther but that Jermyn will remain silent if Harold drops proceedings against him. Harold refuses the bribe. Later, he and his mother invite Esther to live with them at Transome Court. Both are charmed with Esther, and Harold courts her, partly to regain the estate through marriage.

Meanwhile, Felix’s case is announced for trial. Rufus, Harold, and Esther testify to Felix’s attempts to quell the riot, but he killed a man, although inadvertently, and so he is sentenced to an imprisonment of four years. Esther’s plea is so powerful that it moves even the arch-Tory, Sir Maximus Debarry, who helps petition Parliament to grant Felix a pardon. Felix is soon released. In the meantime, Mrs. Transome is unhappy that Harold rejected Jermyn thoroughly and is attempting to sue him. Harold, claiming that Jermyn is a thief, intends to carry out the suit. In a final burst of fury, Jermyn tells Harold the truth: He is Harold’s father and, during his long affair with Mrs. Transome, saved the estate during several difficult times. Harold is crushed, and only Esther is able to reconcile him to his unhappy mother. Feeling his illegitimacy keenly, Harold tells Esther that he cannot, as he intended, ask for her hand. This declaration saves Esther much embarrassment, for she already acknowledged her love for Felix. To solve problems for all concerned, Esther signs over her rights to Transome Court to Harold, returns to her father’s house, and soon marries Felix.

Bibliography

Carroll, David R. “Felix Holt: Society as Protagonist.” In George Eliot: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by George R. Creeger. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Develops variations on the theme of rebellion among the characters. Characters move from a condition of illusion to a clearer understanding of reality. Distinguishes vision from illusion and justifies the novel’s plot complexity as necessary to its theme.

Coveney, Peter. Introduction to Felix Holt, the Radical, by George Eliot. New York: Penguin Books, 1972. Offers a full historical background for the political context of the novel, including legal complexities, parliamentary activities, and many topical allusions.

DeCicco, Lynne Marie. Women and Lawyers in the Mid-Nineteenth Century English Novel: Uneasy Alliances and Narrative Misrepresentation. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996. An analysis of Felix Holt, the Radical and two other Victorian novels that prominently depict the public’s suspicion of lawyers and lawyers’ hostility toward women.

Hardy, Barbara. George Eliot: A Critic’s Biography. New York: Continuum, 2006. An examination of Eliot’s life combined with an analysis of her works, which will prove useful to readers with some prior knowledge of her writings. Includes an outline of her works and the events in her life.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. Critical Essays on George Eliot. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970. This collection, edited by a pioneer in Eliot studies, helped interest critics in feminist analyses of her work. One of the essays is devoted to an analysis of Felix Holt, the Radical.

Horsman, Alan. “George Eliot.” In The Victorian Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Gives voluminous details that enlighten Eliot’s political views and artistic craft; places Felix Holt, the Radical in context with Eliot’s other works. Includes bibliography.

Karl, Fred. George Eliot: Voice of a Century. New York: Norton, 1995. Karl’s biography draws on valuable new archival material and feminist criticism, depicting Eliot as an author whose work symbolized “the ambiguities, the anguish, and divisiveness of the Victorian era.”

Levine, George, ed. The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Collection of essays analyzing Eliot’s work from various perspectives, including discussions of her early and late novels and of Eliot and realism, philosophy, science, politics, religion, and gender.

Rignall, John, ed. Oxford Reader’s Companion to George Eliot. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. An encyclopedic volume with entries that cover everything about the novelist, including her pets and homes, as well as her themes and various contexts in which to place her works.

Uglow, Jennifer. George Eliot. New York: Pantheon Books, 1987. Chapter 11 analyzes the dialectics, figurative language, mythic allusions, connotative imagery, and ironic narrative voice in the novel. Uglow particularly focuses on gender definitions and interaction. Includes bibliography.