SOURCE: Hockberg, Shifra. “Nomenclature and the Historical Matrix of Felix Holt.” English Language Notes 31, no. 2 (December 1993): 46-56.

In the following essay, Hockberg explores Eliot's use of names in Felix Holt to encode literary and historical references.

Felix Holt, one of the least read of George Eliot's works, provides a fascinating example of the ways in which the novelist uses onomastics to encode historical and literary allusions into her text. Jerome Meckier, for instance, suggests that Eliot's novel “rewrite[s] the Book of Esther for Victorian audiences,” with Esther Lyon, like her Scriptural counterpart, functioning as a potential savior of her people.¹ In a similar vein, Donald D. Stone notes the Byronic reference in Harold Transome's first name, as well as the novel's satire of Esther's romantic obsession with Byronic heroes.² Nonetheless, the full implications and relevance of the names of the main male characters in Felix Holt—Felix...