Edith Simcox on George Eliot: Transgendered Portraits in Episodes in the Lives of Men, Women, and Lovers

Fulmer examines Victorian scholar, reformer, and author Edith J. Simcox who was a successful businesswoman, tradesunion leader, elected member of the London school board, social activist who worked to improve women’s lives, andregularly contributed to leading periodicals. Less known for her own achievements than for her unrequited love for GeorgeEliot, Simcox. recorded details of her secret love in the posthumously published diary she kept from May 1876 until January1900: the Autobiography of a Shirtmaker (1998) which relates the story of both her love for Eliot and her own productivityas scholar, writer, and activist engaging in many traditionally masculine roles. Contextualizing Simcox’s published fictionalvignettes Episodes in the Lives of Men, Women, and Lovers (1882) in relation to the Autobiography, Fulmer argues thateleven of the twelve Episodes are transgendered accounts of Simcox’s unrequited love for Eliot based on real encountersshe had with Eliot and that the Episodes reveal Simcox writing therapeutically to cope with the pain of Eliot’s rejection.Simcox, Fulmer argues, was ahead of her time in writing about same-sex relationships and her own transgendered identity.