Parkes, Joseph (1796-1865)

Joseph Parkes was a Birmingham solicitor and radical reformer whose daughter Bessie became one of Eliot's closest friends. He first brought Eliot into print: in 1844 he asked Charles Hennell to arrange an English translation of Strauss's Life of Jesus, and when the friends who had guaranteed the cost fell away, Parkes himself advanced the funds for publication. Eliot, who took the translation over from Elizabeth Brabant, received only twenty pounds for two years' work, and the book appeared under John Chapman's imprint in 1846. In London in the early 1850s Eliot dined often at his house, where he liked to seat her beside his celebrated guests. His daughter Bessie was one of the few friends Eliot told beforehand of her departure for Germany with Lewes in July 1854, and the friendship survived. Parkes died in 1865.

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

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Joseph Parkes to Bessie Rayner Parkes, ,[July 1854]

Joseph Parkes (1796-1865), Parkes, Joseph (1796-1865), Social Network Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed November 11, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/97150