Scenes of clerical life

Thomas A. Noble's work on Scenes of Clerical Life provides an excellent example of a meticulously edited scholarly edition. His introduction gives a detailed account-with well-chosen quotations from George Eliot's letters and autograph journal, and from Blackwood's ledger-of the planning, writing, publishing, and reissuing of Scenes in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, and in six editions from 1857 to 1878. Noble clearly shows George Henry Lewes's role in Eliot's first attempts at fiction, and reveals the cordial professional business dealings between Eliot and her publisher, John Blackwood. The edition also provides a description of the MS of Scenes, held by the Pierpont Morgan Library; a description of the first six editions; and a detailed discussion of the text chosen, with emmendations. Noble's notes, mostly textual, consist mainly of deletions and variations from the MS. This edition serves the scholar, critic, and graduate student, as it clearly intends; the student wishing biographical or historical background, or a discussion of the three stories in Scenes, would need to look elsewhere, perhaps to David Lodge's introduction to the Penguin edition (1973). But for any scholar concerned with textual matters, Eliot's revisions from the manuscript, etc., Noble's edition will be invaluable. Strongly recommended for any library serving scholars or graduate students in 19th-century British literature or British fiction.-S.F. Klepetar, St. Cloud State University