The Transformation of Rage: Mourning and Creativity in George Eliot's Fiction by Peggy Fitzhugh Johnstone New York:  New York University Press, 1994,  xv + 207 pp., $45.00.

There are many approaches to writing a biography. Each has its merits, and each undoubtedly reflects aspects of the personality of the creative biographer. When confronted by massive amounts of information, the writer must have a schema for ordering, prioritizing, and reducing what could be an information overload to a production that will attract readers, scholars, teachers, and students,

while still conforming to the creator's plan. In reviewing such a life tale, it is helpful for the reviewer if he or she can determine that “creator's plan.” Before discussing Johnstone's book on George Eliot, let me make a few comments.

At one end of the spectrum we have many biographers, each writing about the same subject. Exemplifying this approach is a volume edited by Lellenberg (1987). Here 13 different biographers discuss Arthur Conan Doyle from their own points of view. The reader can judge and assess the volume, which at times appears to be mosaiclike. At the other end of the spectrum are individual, lengthy biographies, each written from a specific perspective. Between these two extremes variations of the spectral opposites appear and can be appreciated or disagreed with by the reader. When one writes about a person about whom we have nine volumes of personal correspondence, eight novels, other essays and monographs, and autobiographical accounts, selections have to be made and themes emphasized that are consistent. Evidence comes from many sources, including personal remembrances from contemporary friends and relatives of the biographical subject.

This is the situation with George Eliot—Mary Ann Evans, Marian Evans, and now Marian Lewes. This very stimulating study brings together biographical details of Eliot's life and seven of her published works. It has been most interesting to me to review several scholarly volumes on Eliot and then to immerse myself in other biographies and commentaries about her life, her work, her creativity, and her genius. To make detailed co