Felix Holt, the Radical

Felix Holt, the Radical is an 1866 social novel by the English author George Eliot (pen name of Mary Ann Evans). The novel deals with political conflicts in a small English town at the time of the 1832 Reform Act. The plot centers on an election in which Harold Transome, a local landowner, runs for the "radical cause" for tactical reasons, contrary to his family's conservative tradition. Transome's opportunism is contrasted by Felix Holt, a young working-class man who rebels against the corruption and injustice of his time. Another plotline concerns Esther Lyon, the stepdaughter of a nonconformist clergyman, who is the true heiress to the Transome estate without knowing it. She must ultimately choose between a future with Harold Transome or Felix Holt. Her choice symbolizes the novel's central conflict between different lifestyles and social ideas.