ER LYTTON

1. _Life_--Birth and childhood. Fondness for medieval romances (compare
Sir Walter Scott). Cambridge and the Chancellor's gold medal. Romantic
adventures in the North. Unhappy marriage. Necessity the motive to work.
Twelve novels in ten years. His plays. Parliament. Colonial
secretaryship. The peerage. Westminster Abbey.

2. _Novels_--The novel of society: Pelham. The novel of adventure: Paul
Clifford. The novel of crime: Eugene Aram. The novel of domestic life:
My Novel. The novel of history: Last Days of Pompeii.

3. _Plays_--Lady of Lyons, Richelieu, Money. Analysis of plots,
description of chief characters, and readings.

4. _Critical Estimate of His Work and Place in Literature_.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Life of Bulwer Lytton, by his Son. Bulwer Lytton's
Letters. T. H. S. Escott: Edward Bulwer. Lewis Melville: Victorian
Novelists. J. F. Molloy: Famous Plays.

Bulwer Lytton was a personage in society in his day. Contrast his life
with that of his contemporaries, Thackeray and Disraeli. Compare Vanity
Fair and Coningsby with Pelham. Distinguish between Bulwer Lytton and
his son, who was viceroy of India and author of the once-popular Lucile.
Explain why Bulwer Lytton's plays have more vitality than his novels.

VIII--GEORGE ELIOT

1. _The Story of Her Life_--Materials for her novels in her early life.
Evangelical training and later change in her religious views. Life with
Lewes and his encouragement of her writing. Literary friendships.
Marriage to Cross.

2. _Scenes from Clerical Life, and Silas Marner_--Story of the
appearance of the Scenes and of her _nom de plume_. Reading from Silas
Marner.

3. _Adam Bede_--Study of Retribution. _Felix Holt_--Study of labor.
Readings.

4. _Mill on the Floss_--Study of family life. _Middlemarch_--Study of
selfishness. Readings.

5. _Romola_--Study of historic Florence. _Daniel Deronda_--Study of the
Jew. Readings.

6. _Comparison of George Eliot with Thackeray, Dickens, and
Trollope_--Her ethical quality as a writer.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--J. W. Cross: Life of George Eliot. Oscar Browning:
Life of George Eliot. Mathilde Blind: George Eliot. C. S. Olcott: George
Eliot: Scenes and People in Her Novels, illustrated from photographs.
Also essays by Sir Leslie Stephen, E. H. A. Scherer, E. Dowden, R. H.
Hutton, and Henry James.

No program on George Eliot would be complete without a brief
presentation of her poetry. A scene may be read from the Spanish Gipsy,
a