George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy

Jodie Matthews (University of Huddersfield)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1868

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Poetry (any)

Resources

Set in fifteenth-century Andalucía, Eliot’s narrative poem, conceived as early as 1864 and finished in 1868, tells the story of Fedalma, a young woman experiencing the clashing of two duties.

Raised in luxury and as a Catholic by her fiancé Don Silva’s family, the heroine was born a Gypsy. In a reversal of the usual child-stealing plot involving Gypsies, she was snatched from her parents by marauding Spaniards during a raid against the Moors. Her origins first appear to burst out from behind a façade of nurtured control when she dances publicly and sensuously in the town square to the horror of her husband and the Catholic religious authorities:

Sudden, with gliding motion like a flame
That …

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731 words

Citation: Matthews, Jodie. "The Spanish Gypsy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 October 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7798, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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