Abstract
Håkansson identifies dogs in Eliot’s novels, analyzing the functions they serve in the narratives. Animal images form part of a satiric streak in Eliot’s narratives and can provide mocking commentary on pretentious owners (Karen B. Mann). Focusing on the ways in which dogs and dog imagery operate to influence reader response, and on dogs’ roles as narrative agents, this study ranges from Jet, the cosseted but loyal spaniel in Scenes of Clerical Life to the unfortunate pups in Daniel Deronda. The study shows how Eliot’s allusions to canines both credit and discredit characters; compares the fictional use of dogs and dog metaphors to Eliot’s use of other animals; and compares animal images to that animal the human, whose needs, psychological patterns and idiosyncrasies Eliot places into relief through the eyes of a dog.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Adams, James Eli. “Gyp’s Tale: On Sympathy, Silence and Realism in Adam Bede.” Dickens Studies Annual: Essays on Victorian Fiction 20 (1991): 227–242.
Auerbach, Nina. “Dorothea’s Lost Dog.” In Middlemarch in the 21st Century, edited by Karen Chase. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Ayres-Ricker, Brenda. “Dogs in George Eliot’s Adam Bede.” The George Eliot, George Henry Lewes Newsletter, nos. 18/19 (1991): 22–30.
Beierl, Barbara Hardy. “The Sympathetic Imagination and the Human-Animal Bond: Fostering Empathy Through Reading Imaginative Literature.” Anthrozoös 21, no. 3 (2008): 213–220.
Chez, Keridiana W. Victorian Dogs, Victorian Men: Affect and Animals in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2017.
Eliot, George. The George Eliot Letters. Edited by Gordon Sherman Haight. 9 vols. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, vols. 1–3, 1954; 4–7, 1955; 8–9, 1978.
———. Daniel Deronda. Edited by Graham Handley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988a.
———. Scenes of Clerical Life. Edited by Thomas A. Noble. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988b.
———. Adam Bede. Edited by Valentine Cunningham. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996a.
———. The Mill on the Floss. Edited by Gordon S. Haight. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996b.
———. Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life. Edited by David Carroll. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Feuerstein, Anna. “The Realism of Animal Life: The Seashore, Adam Bede, and George Eliot’s Animal Alterity.” Victorians Institute Journal, no. 44 (2016): 29–55.
Flegel, Monica. Pets and Domesticity in Victorian Literature and Culture: Animality, Queer Relations and the Victorian Family. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Gray, Beryl. “George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, and Dogs.” The George Eliot Review, no. 33 (2002): 51–63.
———. “Idlers and Collaborators: Enter the Dog.” The George Eliot Review, special issue (2009): 25–35.
Hardy, Barbara. “Imagery in George Eliot’s Last Novels.” The Modern Language Review 50, no. 1 (1955): 6–14.
Kete, Kathleen. The Beast in the Boudoir: Pet-keeping in Nineteenth Century Paris. Berkley: University of California Press, 1994.
Kreilkamp, Ivan. “Petted Things: Wuthering Heights and the Animal.” The Yale Journal of Criticism 18, no. 1 (2005): 87–110.
Letissier, Georges. “From Dog Alterity to Canine Sublime: A Cross-Century Reading of Victorian Fiction.” Cahiers Victoriens & Edouardiens, no. 85 (2017): 1–12.
Levine, George. “The Heartbeat of the Squirrel.” In Realism, Ethics and Secularism: Essays on Victorian Literature and Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Richardson, Angelique. “George Eliot, G.H. Lewes, and Darwin: Animals, Emotions and Morals.” In After Darwin: Animals, Emotions and the Mind. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2013.
Ritvo, Harriet. The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age. London: Penguin, 1987.
Robertson, Linda K. “Horses and Hounds: The Importance of Animals in The Mill on the Floss.” The George Eliot Review, no. 26 (1995): 61–63.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Håkansson, S. (2019). The Functions of Dogs in George Eliot’s Fiction. In: Arnold, J., Marz Harper, L. (eds) George Eliot. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10626-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10626-3_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10625-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10626-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)