The Honeymoon
In 1880, Marian Evans, better known as George Eliot, married John Walter Cross; she was sixty, and Johnnie, as he was called, was forty. It was an odd pairing. Johnnie was fun-loving, gregarious, and athletic, while Marian was artistic, intellectual, and wary of public recognition. For nearly thirty years she had openly lived with, and wholeheartedly loved, the already-married George Henry Lewes, and his recent death had opened a chasm of loneliness and public scrutiny. Marriage to Johnnie, a longtime friend and also her accountant, would put a much-needed stamp of societal approval on Marian’s final years.
Dinitia Smith explores the relationship between Marian and Johnny, framed by their disastrous honeymoon in Venice, where Johnnie had a breakdown and attempted suicide. As the events in hot, humid Venice unfold—Johnnie being mistaken for Marian’s son, the lack of physical fulfillment, the unbearable leering of a gondolier—flashbacks provide insight into the life and career of Marian Evans. Smith delves into the brutal facts of being a plain woman in the Victorian era, with little likelihood of a prosperous marriage. Marian strives to get an education, so she can support herself, and in doing so, draws away from her family, attracted by liberal thinkers such as Charles and Cara Bray, Robert Brabant, and of course Lewes. Marian’s early working years, as the secret editor of the Westminster Review, living with John Chapman and his family, are harsh; to earn a living she has to give up her name and meet everyone’s needs while ignoring her own.
Smith draws a many-layered portrait of Marian Evans, her life and her loves, with fine details both historical and personal. Readers will enjoy an accurate portrait of the era and the people behind the great George Eliot.
