A Writer's Notebook, 1854-1879 and Uncollected Writings by George Eliot (review)

132ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW Preseren wrote ballads, romances, sonnets; and under German influence, Persian ghasels. He excelled in all forms. According to Cooper, the poetry reveals a delicacy of form and a sweetness. Their themes deal with eroticism, love, and patriotism, as well as with human destiny. Preïeren aims at ennobling his compatriots through art and by showing how the misery of existence may be endured. The poet makes ample use of religious symbols, especially Christian ones. Adversity in health and misfortune in love contributed to Preïeren's incurablepessimism. ThisPromethean spirit, leading a rather pedestrian life, vainly strove to enjoy the amenities that a Biedermeier-life could offer. His longest, most complex, and highly enigmatic work, "The Baptism on the Savica" (1835), is a work of genius deserving international acclaim. Because of its religious setting it is an embarrassing work especially for modern critics, says Cooper. Cooper's study contains few objections for the critic. However, it may be pointed out that the Schlegel brothers were not Austro-Germans (p. 44), and that Ljubljana's (Laibach's) German upper-middle class were not all Germanized Slovenes. It would have made more sense for Cooper to give titles in their original language; e.g., in the case of Ljubljana's German-language paper Illyrian List (p. 28). Vienna was during Preseren's lifetime the musical capital of the world. Its architecture was among the world's best. The circle of Vienna Romantics not only had an impact on literary activity and criticism, but also on social and political life extending far beyond the borders of the Hapsburg Empire. Vienna had excellent theaters, and could boast of one of the century's greatest dramatists (Grillparzer). Thus, it is quite out ofplace tc state that not one of the Empire's cities was a "center of the highest culture" (p. 149). Finally, I do not understand the meaning contained in the statement that "in the course of the European religious revolutions of the Sixteenth century the notion of worth changed to reflect the value of each soul in the struggle against evil,..." (p. 18). Literary scholars are often naive historians, and at times rather mystifying theologians . PETER HORWATH Arizona State University George Eliot. A Writer's Notebook, 1854-1879 and Uncollected Writings. Ed. by Joseph Wiesenfarth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981. 301p. Two publications in the past 30 years have provided a crucial foundation for research into the life and works of George Eliot: Gordon S. Haight's nine-volume edition of her letters (1954-1978) and Thomas Pinney's single-volume edition of her essays (1963). Joseph Wiesenfarth has now provided Eliot scholars with a third — an edition of her writer's notebook for the period in which she wrote most of her essays and all of her novels, plus two items from her MS. labeled "Poetry" (in the Beinecke Library, Yale) and fourteen critical essays from the 1850s, the formative period of her thinking on the nature and function of art. All but one of theseessays is previously unpublished since its appearance in periodical form and all are difficult to obtain. Wiesenfarth's introduction alone ought to be read by all Eliot enthusiasts for the links he makes between her reading notes and her development of character, idea, and setting in her fiction. And though the book, especially in the notebook section, may seem at first glance one for scholars to consult rather than to read in at their Book Reviews133 leisure, the perceptive introduction and the range of subject matter that Eliot studied make the work a fascinating one. Even Wiesenfarth's notes to the notebook are stimulating. Some of their information is repeated in the introduction; much is not. The essays are given short introductory notices, employing the pattern Pinney established in his edition. These notices supplement the introduction in connecting Eliot's essays and her fiction. But one can hope the scholar will not stop at the headnotes , but go on to enjoy the fluid style, erudition, and information of the essays themselves. The reader of her novels will perceive additional connections, beyond those Wiesenfarth offers. For instance, Eliot's comments on the frankness of Shakespeare...