''Felix Holt, the Radical,'' appeared in 1866. The title, and what by courtesy could be regarded as the main plot, have reference to politics, but most of the incidents and illustrations of character relate to religious and social peculiarities rather than to the party feelings of Tories, Whigs or dicals. Though inferior in sustained interest to the other English tales of the author, ''Felix Holt'' has passages of great vigour, and some exquisitely drawn characters—we may instance that of Rufus Lyon, a Dissenting minister—and also some fine, pure and natural description. This is the brightest, the least penetrated with inner melancholy, of all George Eliot''s stories.