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Episode 3

George Eliot's real life explored through five of her fictional characters

Kathryn Hughes hears from Sathnam Sanghera and Philip Davis about Janet from Janet's Repentance.

George Eliot - notable among Victorian novelists not only for her books but also for her personal life-story - explored through five of her fictional characters

3.Janet Dempster

It's sometimes said that George Eliot never wrote an autobiography because she had written her own life into her key characters.

Presenter Kathryn Hughes hears from contemporary writer Sathnam Sanghera and recent biographer Philip Davis about Janet Dempster from the early novella, Janet's Repentance. A shocking and very contemporary story about domestic violence in a small West Midlands town, how much does the redemptive journey of the abused Janet reflect Eliot's own growth in sympathy as a novelist?

With readings from the novel by Juliet Stevenson

Producer: Beaty Rubens

14 minutes

Last on

Thu 21 Nov 2019 00:30

Broadcasts

  • Wed 20 Nov 2019 09:45
  • Thu 21 Nov 2019 00:30