Felix Holt, the True Story is a critical examination of Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) by George Eliot. Since the novelÕs publication, it has automatically been assumed that the fictional East Midlands market town of Treby Magna (where the novel is set) ÒmustÓ be based upon the Nuneaton of George EliotÕs childhood. However, this assumption has made the novel largely Òunreadable.Ó Whilst EliotÕs childhood and her earlier novels are informative towards the construction of Felix Holt, the Radical, this study proposes that the Treby community is based upon the East Midlands market town of Leicester Ð by far the oldest East Midlands community.
It is also proposed that Eliot wanted to write a novel with a similar impact to Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1851 Ð 1853) in which the community finally pulls together. Hence, it is determined that Eliot wrote Felix Holt, the Radical, as a means of unifying the varying rifts of ÒChristian eclecticismÓ into her mode of Humanism.