Impressions of Theophrastus Such is the last and perhaps the most personal book written by George Eliot. An unconventional counterpart and an edifying conclusion to her novels, it illustrates and interprets the moral history of her times.

Part autobiography, part satire, part social analysis, Impressions takes a hard look at all classes and professions, with a special place reserved to authors. Eliot’s gaze moves from a peaceful, rural England in the first chapters to England as a ruthless colonising power in the last. Written by one of the sharpest minds of the nineteenth century, this is the perfect introduction to the intellectual life of Victorian England.

This is the first contemporary scholarly edition of the novel. It is a tribute to Eliot’s writing and a literary rescue operation.