Overshadowing the clerical life itself in these three stories is the surrounding society of rural and small town England in the early nineteenth century. It is an almost nostalgic picture of a society that, even when George Eliot was writing, was disappearing. The lives of the key clergymen depicted, Amos Barton, Maynard Gilfil and Edgar Tryan are not happy ones for different reasons which are revealed as the stories evolve. Eliot’s gift for dialogue and deft depiction of character are anticipated here although her moralizing comments are rather more intrusive than in later work. Overall these scenes serve as a useful introduction to her more mature and, to my mind, more successful later work.