Felix Holt, the Radical

by George Eliot

"Felix Holt, the Radical" by George Eliot is a social and political novel published in 1866. Set during England's 1832 Reform Act, the story follows an idealistic working-class watchmaker who fights corruption while Harold Transome, an opportunistic landowner, runs for Parliament as a Radical. At the center stands Esther Lyon, who discovers she's the secret heiress to the Transome estate and must choose between a life of wealth with Harold or principled poverty with Felix—a decision symbolizing the novel's deeper conflict between social values.