Set during the time of the Reform Act of 1832, the story centers on an election contested by Harold Transome, a local landowner, in the Radical cause, contrary to his familys Tory traditions. Contrasting with the opportunism of Transome is the sincere, but opinionated, Radical Felix Holt.
Against this background, the author George Eliot tells a love story and weaves a plot which has many elements of the sensation novel, such as illegitimacy, blackmail, and the discovery of an heiress, where the suspense is maintained until the end.
