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"Arion": George Eliot's Exploration of Art and Influence after "Middlemarch"
Ist Teil von
Victorian poetry, 2016-06, Vol.54 (2), p.199-220
Ort / Verlag
Morgantown: West Virginia University Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2016
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Project MUSE
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Scholars have noted how a number of Eliot's poems reveal her struggle with fame and ambition but have largely overlooked "Arion," a little-known poem from 1873 that constitutes a fascinating example of Eliot's literary effort to address this conflict in the aftermath of Middlemarch's critical and financial success in 1871 to 1872.3 In "Arion," Eliot adapts Herodotus's Histories, book 1, chapter 24, which tells the story of Arion (ancient Greek poet and inventor of the dithyramb), who won fame and wealth in Italy and was forced by sailors to jump into the sea upon returning to his native Corinth.4 Eliot's thematic and formal changes to Herodotus's story reveal her own struggle as a famous, aging artist working to compose lasting and meaningful art while grappling with the potential trappings of celebrity. [...]after her death critics largely dismissed her poetry as inferior verse, and over time it fell out of wide circulation.5 Until recently, scholars neglected this important part of her work-written at the height of her career-but new studies focusing on her poetry and prominence as a public figure offer a more complete picture of the author and her work as a whole.6 From 1864 to 1878, Eliot wrote poetry regularly and, from 1866 to 1870 and 1873 to 1874, intensively.