CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Questions 1.2 Research Background 1.3 Literature Review: A General Survey 1.3.1 From the 1880s to the 1940s: A Slow Process of Regaining Critical Attention 1.3.2 From the 1950s to the 1980s: A Fertile Testing Ground for Various Schools of Literary Criticism 1.3.3 From the 1990s to the Present: Contextual Studies 1.3.4 Previous George Eliot Studies in China 1.4 Research Methodology 1.4.1 The Historical Trajectory of Images 1.4.2 The Historical Relations between Images and Words 1.4.3 The Rise of Iconology 1.4.4 Previous Image Studies in Literature 1.4.5 Ekphrasis Revisited: A Prospective Theoretical Framework of Studying Images in Literature 1.5 Potential Research Significance 1.6 Chapter Outline CHAPTER 2 GEORGE ELIOT, REALISM, AND IMAGES 2.1 Realism in Nineteenth-Century Britain 2.2 George Eliot's Evolving Realism and Pictorial Tastes CHAPTER 3 SCENES AS IMAGES: GEORGE ELIOT'S MIMETIC REALISM 3.1 George Eliot's Religion of Humanity 3.2 Scenes of Clerical Life: The Secular Priest as the Suffering Christ 3.2.1 "Mr. Gilfil's Love-Story" 3.2.2 "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverent Amos Barton" 3.2.3 "Janet's Repentance" 3.3 Adam Bede: The Divine beneath the Humanin Ordinary Life 3.4 The Mill on the Floss: The Hazards of "Public Opinion" CHAPTER 4 IDEAS AS IMAGES: GEORGE ELIOT'S SYMBOLIC REALISM 4.1 Silas Marner: Love as the Natural Bond of HumanRelations 4.2 Romola: Fear and Sympathy Incarnated 4.3 Felix Holt: Arnoldian Cultural Radicalism CHAPTER 5 MOTIFS AS IMAGES: GEORGE ELIOT'S INTELLECTUAL REALISM 5.1 Later-born Theresas in Middlemarch: "All ThisVast Wreck of Ambitious Ideals" 5.2 Daniel Deronda: "Gambling Being a Vice I HaveNo Mind To" CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION References Appendix Figures