George Eliot may sound like a male name; however, it’s actually the pen name of a female Victorian author. Mary Anne Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot) was one of the leading authors of the Victorian Era. Even though women authors had started publishing works under their own names, Mary Anne Evans persisted in using a male pseudonym. Her reasons behind doing this are unknown, but there are theories as to the use of a pen name. The first is that she believed the works of female authors were never taken seriously as most women wrote frivolous romances. The second is her want of privacy due to her somewhat unusual life. George Eliot lived for over 20 years with a married man and conducted herself as his wife. Later, after her life partner had died, she married another man who was nearly 20 years her junior. Some people say that she believed her private life would affect the sales of her novels.

       Throughout her career, George Eliot translated several works, wrote poetry, and published seven novels. Her first novel, “Adam Bede”, became a favorite of both Princess Louise and Queen Victoria. In fact, the Queen was so impressed by the beautiful scenes in the novel, that she commissioned an artist to paint a serious of scenes from the book. Queen Victoria became an avid reader of George Eliot’s works and eventually George Eliot was introduced to the Queen in 1877.

       Eliot’s novel “Adam Bede” became one of the most widely read novels of the Victorian Era. She was praised by critics for using a rural setting and writing with a political view. In “Adam Bede” she tells the story of a love triangle played out against the background of infanticide. The trial in the book was met with rave reviews for its realism. All of her subsequent novels became hits as well.

       Today, George Eliot novels are read in high school and college courses throughout multiple nations. Each of her novels has been developed for film or television.

The Victorian King Arthur

Have you ever heard someone say “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”? This is a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson. Tennyson served as Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892 (the longest tenure of any poet laureate). In fact, he was the first person ever to be elevated to the British peerage for accomplishments in writing. Some of his most popular works include “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “The Lady of Shalott”, and “Mariana”. The work that has had the most impact on any Post-Victorian Era is “The Idylls of the King”, which chronicles the events of the infamous King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Published between 1856 and 1885, these poems replaced all previous versions of the story in popularity and became one of the quintessential works on the subject.

Tennyson’s work is the first to develop all the characters related to the story. He sought to create King Arthur as a gentleman that any Victorian man could strive to live up to. He included the Victorians’ renewed interest in courtly love or the idea of “pure” love, as well as his belief that it was difficult or near impossible to achieve. This he symbolized through the love of Arthur for Guinevere. Idylls shows the unconditional love that Arthur has for Guinevere. She is ultimately unable to return this type of love and flees to a convent after having an affair with Lancelot; though Arthur forgave her. Tennyson also goes on to develop poems dedicated to every knight that sits at the round table and how they came to be there. The amount of work Tennyson put into Idylls created an epic that authors of every age since have looked to as the source for their own version of these tales.

In the past 20 years alone, there have been multiple works of fiction along with movies and television shows that have used Tennyson as their starting point for King Arthur. Readers may enjoy Nancy McKenzie, Marion Zimmer Bradley Rosalind Miles or Stephen Lawhead. If you prefer films, there is First Knight; The Mists of Avalon; or Excalibur. Even Disney has done a few Arthurian movies. They have done The Sword in the Stone; A Kid in King Arthur’s Court; and Avalon High. Channel Stations have now started developing their own series. Starz has Camelot and BBC has Merlin.

On a side note: Archaeologists believe the man on whom the legends of King Arthur are based was a Briton/Roman general who lived in the 4th or 5th century.  The general Artorius helped the Britons drive out the Saxons and served as a counselor to the kings, but never became king. 

Lanuage of flowers

If anyone has seen our flyer for the upcoming events at the Hunter House, then you will know that we have decided to focus on flowers throughout the summer. Nowadays, we send flowers for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, or perhaps to smooth things over after a fight. The Victorians, on the other hand, used flowers to convey so many emotions that they created a language for flowers assigning a meaning to every flower. Simply by giving someone a well thought out bouquet you could tell someone you loved them, you sympathized with them, you hated them, you just wanted to be friend, you thought they were lying, and so on; even something as simple as telling someone you agreed with them.
Prior to the Victorian Era, flowers still had meanings. They were used as symbols of a religion or deity, usually Christian, Greek, or Roman. There is also a story behind the origin and meaning of each flower. Being a person who enjoys all kinds of stories and tales, I could pick a few flowers and let you know the stories behind each. However, in the interest of space and the fact that I’m supposed to be focusing on the Victorian meaning of flowers, I’ll just have to let that go. Since we will shortly be coming up on June, which is also referred to as “wedding month”, I thought I’d focus on the meaning of the flowers inside an average Victorian wedding bouquet.
A typical wedding bouquet usually consisted of one large rose in the middle, surrounded by other flowers. There could be other roses in the bouquet as well, but there was usually a larger on in the middle of the bouquet. A rose symbolizes love. The color of the rose indicates the type of love a person would wish to convey. Red roses are for romantic love. The story behind how roses turned red is Greek in origin. It’s a great story regarding Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Persephone (goddess of the underworld) competing for the love of Adonis (a mortal). In a nutshell, the story says that Aphrodite blocked Adonis from going to the underworld to see Persephone. So Persephone had Adonis fatally wounded so that he would be forever locked in the underworld with her. Aphrodite rushed to his aid while Adonis was dying and scratched herself on a white rose bush, turning them red. White roses symbolize purity in love or spiritual love (white roses were associated with the Virgin Mary). Yellow roses symbolize a decrease in love and often refer to infidelity. Yellow roses were not used in Victorian wedding bouquets.
Next to the large rose, the most common flowers in a bouquet were baby’s breath, pansies, ivy, dahlias (not black), peonies, and primroses. Baby’s breath is a symbol of festivity and happiness. Pansies are meant to convey happy thoughts. Ivy is for fidelity. Dahlias are used to express commitment. Peonies mean that one has hope for a happy marriage. Primroses are said to also be a sign of love and also youthfulness.
The primrose was one of the most fashionable flowers in the Victorian Era. Queen Victoria had them grown in her private gardens. She would often send bouquets of primroses to Prime Minister Disraeli. Upon Disraeli’s death, she sent a wreath of primroses as a token of affection. The other most popular flower in Victorian times was the violet. The meaning of violets is modesty, but the Victorians liked the scent so much that violets were the most common flower to find at the street markets.
After reading all about flowers here, we hope you will come see the decorations we have planned in the museum during our flower related events. If you’re like me and love the stories behind the meanings of flowers, you might enjoy this book: The Language of Flowers by Sheila Pickles.