Romola (Everyman's Library)

Set in late 15th-century Italy, in the Renaissance Florence of Machiavelli and the Medicis, Romola (1862-3) is the most exotic and adventurous of George Eliot's novels. It reconstructs a turning-point in the intellectual history of Europe by charting the career and martyrdom of the charismatic religious leader Savonarola, who rebelled against the humanist spirit of the age and burned books on a "bonfire of vanities". Interwoven with these momentous public events is the personal story of Romola de' Bardi, the most inspirational of George Eliot's heroines, and Tito Melema, the most unscrupulous of her villains. Of all her novels "Romola" was Eliot's favourite, "I felt some wonder that anyone should think I had written anything better". She was later to remark, "I could swear by every sentance as having been written with my best blood." The text is taken from the authoritative Clarendon edition. The notes provide bibliographical information on the numerous historical figures in the novel, identify quotations and literary, biblical and mythological allusions, explains historical and topographical references, and gives translations of all Italian words and phrases.