Pages:
431
Original
date of publication: 1845
My
edition: 1989 (Virago Modern Classics)
Why
I decided to read:
How
I acquired my copy: Oxfam Bookshop in London, September 2011
Zoe
is the story of a young woman who marries at a young age and ends up having an
affair—with the priest Everhard Burrows. Both of them are outsiders to their
ways of life, so it’s natural that they find themselves drawn to each other.
Geraldine
Jewsbury spent many years in Manchester’s cultural scene, becoming friends with
the Carlyles, GH Lewes, and others. Jewsbury was famous for her outrageous
behavior—she wore men’s clothing, smoked, cursed, and claimed George Sand as
her inspiration. As such, her novel Zoe was meant to titillate her readers, but
as a modern reader, I didn’t care so much for either of the protagonists
especially Zoe, who behaves as a coquette in her pursuit of Everhard. I didn’t
find her behavior shocking so much as annoying.
The
theme certainly would have been shocking to the Victorian reader, but to a
modern-day reader, the most interesting part of the book is how it got written.
This novel was actually a collaboration between Jewsbury, Jane Carlyle, and
another friend, but became a solo effort when Jane Carlyle expressed her
displeasure with the content of the novel. Also, the religious expostulating
got tiresome after a while.
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