What a delightful book! It's difficult to classify it as it's part memoir, part literary criticism, part biography, part ode to a great 19th century novel. But as one of the only people in my Critical Writing class who appreciated Eliot's novel when we read it, I thoroughly enjoyed Mead's book. Admittedly this book would not appeal to anyone uninterested or unimpressed with George Eliot, but for those who are it's quite a treat.