{"product_id":"2940013758599","title":"Scenes Of Clerical Life (Illustrated)","description":"The \"Scenes of Clerical Life\" were to George Eliot's future works what a bold, spirited sketch is to a carefully elaborated picture. All the qualities that distinguished her genius may be discovered in this, one of her first works of fiction. With all Jane Austen's matchless faculty for painting commonplace characters, George Eliot has that other nobler faculty of showing what tragedy, pathos, and humor may be lying in the experience of a human soul \"that looks out through dull gray eyes, and that speaks in a voice of quite ordinary tones.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere the quality most conspicuous is the intensity of emotion, the concentration of tragic feeling within the sphere of commonplace life. The canvas is small; the incident is uneventful; there is no complexity of plot, and no august dramatic picture. But what impresses us most is, nevertheless, the intense depth of tragic feeling. There is none of the delicate monotone of Jane Austen's novels, with their smoothness of movement, the subtle delicacy of description, their avoidance of any touch of tragedy. But in George Eliot the depth of feeling is portrayed with restless effort and certainty of hand, and no elaboration is spared that may heighten the effect. The commonplace, the humorous, the restful picture of everyday life, is skillfully worked in; but we never for one moment are allowed to forget that all the side touches are mere contributions to one special aim -— that of increasing the intensity of the tragic chord that is to be struck. The style corresponds exactly to this central aim. Not a sentence is other than elaborately framed. Each antithesis of feeling is carefully pressed home. Each incident that is to heighten the effect is told with almost painful care. Each touch of humor is so expressed as to heighten the note of tragedy and contrast. In the very narrowing of the scene, and in the concentration with which it is focused, we have another proof of the determination with which the author's purpose is kept in view.","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083167154416,"sku":"2940013758599","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013758599_p0.jpg?v=1763589849","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013758599","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}