George Eliot and Intoxication: Dangerous Drugs for the Condition of England

247 Pages·2000·26.954 MB·English

by  Kathleen McCormack (auth.)

George Eliot and Intoxication
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George Eliot and
Intoxication
Dangerous Drugs for the Condition of
England
Kathleen McCormack
fA
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
HoundmiUs, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40816-0 ISBN 978-0-230-59611-5(eBook)
DOl 10.1057/9780230596115
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York. N.Y. 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McCormack. Kathleen. 1944-
George Eliot and intoxication : dangerous drugs for the
condition of England I Kathleen McCormack.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Eliot, George, 1819-1880-Characters-Aicoholics. 2. Drinking
of alcoholic beverages in literature. 3. Eliot. George.
1819-1880-Characters-Narcotic addicts. 4. Literature and
society- England-History-19th century. 5. Eliot, George.
1819-1880-Political and social views. 6. Didactic fiction.
English-History and criticism. 7. Social problems in literature.
8. Narcotic habit in literature. 9. Alcoholism in literature. 10.
Alcoholics in literature. l. Title.
PR4692.D78 M38 1999
823' .8- dc21 99-33013
CIP
© Kathleen McCormack 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition2000 978-0-333-73492-6
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written
pennission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P OLP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained
forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
for
Michael Clapson
with love
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1. George Eliot and Victorian Intoxication 1
2. Backgrounds and Landscapes 15
3. The Early Fiction 39
4. Public Houses: Unstable Language in Dangerous Places 57
5. Parables of Addiction 91
6. Romola: San Buonvino 111
7. Felix Holts Muddled Metaphors 135
8. Middlemarch: 'Profit Out of Poisonous Pickles' 159
9. Daniel Deronda: After the Opium Wars 183
Epilogue: A Biographical Speculation 202
Bibliography 209
Index
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Preface
In a 1990 number of Literature and Medicine, scientist J. W. Bennett,
discussing George Eliot's 'Janet's Repentance,' wondered why
literary critics seldom write about alcoholism. He believes that the
difficulty of the task arises from a habit of denial. Whether or not
this is true in my case, I would add that writing on drugs creates
problems of tone, for it often does not meet the challenge of
simultaneously avoiding both sanctimoniousness and jocularity.
During the years I have been writing this book, much jocularity, if
little sanctimoniousness, has attended descriptions of my project,
jocularity divided pretty equally between George Eliot's reputation
as the ponderous (and excessively sober) dispenser of moral wisdom
on the one hand and my own motives in choice of topic on the
other.
One of my ambitions as I have prepared this work has been to
avoid either jocular approval or sanctimonious condemnation of
drinking and drugs while proving that George Eliot's drug
metaphors begin with but extend far beyond the traditional
interpretation of them as representations of her characters' dreams,
hallucinations, and illusions. Indeed, George Eliot's fiction
demonstrates how she distributes references to alcohol and opium
plentifully to create an elaborate and comprehensive pattern of
metaphorical figures and plot-level facts which draws often on the
contents of a well-stocked pharmacy of substances related to the
medical, recreational, linguistic, social, physical, political, and
artistic causes and effects of nineteenth-century intoxication.
Kathleen McCormack