∗idealism meets custom in a provincial mirror

She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever, but with the addit…

to her the destinies of mankind, seen by the light of Christianity, made…

Women were expected to have weak opinions; but the great safeguard of so…

Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were a…

∗Eliot crafts moral psychology through meticulous social observation, tracing how idealism collides with provincial custom.

An idealistic young woman's spiritual ambitions clash with provincial society's expectations and marriage.