[Michael F]

Yes, thanks for this, Cally. I’ve been nudged into discovering EJ for myself.

It’s a thoughtful piece, and it jostled two apples from my tree, possibly worth nibbling: i) George Eliot’s wonderful opening of Middlemarch, and how certain feelings and yearnings played out in the character of Dorothea, another woman of intelligence and passion caught in a ‘secular age’; and ii) the other Eliot’s spirituality: I recently re-read Four Quartets, and while (as always) I found much to appreciate, I’ve always had the feeling that Possum, to some degree, had the meaning but missed the experience, to invert his well-known line. I find myself softening on him with the years, but I do think there’s something to that intuition. ‘Too analytical and self-conscious’, Gioia writes, and I think I agree wrt Possum – I’d say it’s the intellect whelming the emotions, even supplanting them. Though perhaps that's unfair, and it's to suggest a problem of agency and responsibility where none exists. A discussion for another day...

Anyway, I look forward to reading some EJ!