George Eliot Birthday Luncheon, 22 November 2009- The Toast to The Immortal Memory

2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of two works of fiction by George Eliot. As no one here could fail to know, throughout the year there have been all kinds of celebrations of her first - and wonderful- novel, Adam Bede (and the word has spread even to London of great Adam Bede happenings in these parts). On the other hand, I\u27ve heard of nothing commemorating \u27The Lifted Veil\u27, which appeared in the same year as the novel. While this strange, supernatural tale of an acutely sensitive, unproductive poet whose clairvoyance alienates him from his fellow mortals is by no means George Eliot\u27s greatest work, I\u27m reminding us of its existence because it had its place in her creative preparation for her second novel, The Mill on the Floss. I believe that writing \u27The Lifted Veil\u27, and submitting it to her publisher, John Blackwood, cleared the way for her to be able to return to the more important work she had already begun. That work had begun by 12 January 1859, the day that George Eliot recorded in her Diary that she and George Henry Lewes had travelled into London to consult The Annual Register for \u27cases of inundation\u27: clearly she was already looking towards the tragic denouement of The Mill on the Floss, and needed to sustain her imagination with the evidence of history. So although the sesquicentennial of the emergence of the Mill isn\u27t until next year, it seems appropriate to think of this year as the 150th anniversary not only of the publication of Adam Bede and \u27The Lifted Veil\u27, but of the beginning of the novel that was to follow. The search of The Annual Register was made three days before George Eliot corrected the last proof sheets of Adam Bede, so the life of her second novel had started even before she had entirely relinquished her first; another indication of how intensely creative the year 1859 was for her. And I find it somehow pleasing that that chronicle of events should be associated with this earliest surviving indication of the Mill\u27s conception, for 1859 happens to have been the one hundredth anniversary of its first issue. The Annual Register is still flourishing, and celebrated its 250th birthday last month