More wife than he had bargained for

Grayscale illustration of a woman, her hand on a desk, speaking to an older, frowning man. The man holds a quill and is surrounded by books.

This illustration captures Dorothea and Edward Casaubon during their honeymoon in Rome. Dorothea’s intellectual eagerness to contribute to her husband’s scholarship, and Casaubon’s discomfort with this, demonstrate their growing estrangement during the period when they should be closest. "Dorothea was not only his wife: she was a personification of that shallow world which surrounds the ill-appreciated or desponding author.Do~othea was indignant in her tum. Had she not been repressing everything in herself exceptt.he desire to enter into some fellowship with her husband's chief interests?" (Book 2, Chapter 20).

Taylor, William Ladd (1854-1926)

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

1894

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Taylor, William Ladd (1854-1926), More wife than he had bargained for, George Eliot Illustrations Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/83564