Romola


"Romola" was George Eliot's fifth book, and followed "Silas
Marner," which was published in 1861. It is a story of
Florence in the days of Savonarola, and was largely the
outcome of a visit the novelist paid to Italy with her
life-long friend, George Henry Lewes. With dim ideas for the
story in her mind, she made exhaustive researches in the
Florentine libraries, gathering historical and topographical
details of the city and its life as they were in the mediæval
period which she was setting herself to re-create. After much
study there and at home, and after one false start, she made a
serious beginning in January, 1862. She was engaged upon it
for eighteen months, always in doubt and sometimes in despair
of her ability to accomplish the task, and by June of the
following year she had thankfully written the last words of
what is regarded by some as her greatest book. Meanwhile, the
romance had begun to appear serially in the "Cornhill" in
July, 1862. The writing of "Romola" is said to have "ploughed
into her" more than any of her other books.


_I.--Tito and Little Tessa_