title: The Making of T.S. Eliot: A Study of the Literary Influences
author:  Joseph Maddrey 
description: "this immersion in Eliot provides a comprehensive perspective and certainly signifies Maddrey's passion for his subject. Recommended"--<i>Choice.</i>
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
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  The Novels Of George Eliot
  
  
  This page copyright © 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  # The Novels Of George Eliot
  
  
  ### By Henry James
  
  
  This page copyright © 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
      
  
  EText by Ian Hillman
  
  
  THE critic's first duty in the presence of an author's collective
  
  
  works is to seek out some key to his method, some utterance of his
  
  
  literary convictions, some indication of his ruling theory. The amount
  
  
  of labour involved in an inquiry of this kind will depend very much
  
  
  upon the author. In some cases the critic will find express
  
  
  declarations; in other cases he will have to content himself with
  
  
  conscientious inductions. In a writer so fond of digressions as George
  
  
  Eliot, he has reason to expect that broad evidences of artistic faith
  
  
  will not be wanting. He finds in “Adam Bede” the following passage:—-
  
  
  “Paint us an angel if you can, with a floating violet robe and a face
  
  
  paled by the celestial light; pai