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Eliot (GEORGE the pen name of MARY)

GEORGE, the pen name of MARY ANN or MARIAN EVANS, an English novelist; born near Nuneaton, Nov. 22, 1820. She received at Coventry an excellent education, and shortly after her 21st year became a convert to Rationalism. Her first literary undertaking was the completion of Mrs. Hennell's translation of Strauss' "Life of Jesus" (1846). After spending two years abroad she became subeditor of the ELIOT "Westminster Review." In January, 1857, she came prominently into public notice with a series of tales entitled "Scenes from Clerical Life." In the following year the publication of "Adam Bede" placed her in the first rank of writers of fiction. It was succeeded by the "Mill on the Floss" (1860); "Silas Marner" (1861) ; "Romola" (1863) "Felix Holt" (1866); "Middlemarch" (1872), and "Daniel Deronda" (1876).

She published also three volumes of verse, "The Spanish Gypsy" (1868); "Agatha" (1869), and the "Legend of Jubal" (1874). Her last work published during GEORGE ELIOT her life was "The Impressions of Theophrastus Such" (1879), but a volume of mixed essays was issued posthumously.

For many years she was happily associated in life and work with George Henry Lewes, though a legal union was impossible during the lifetime of Mrs. Lewes. In May, 1880, after Mr. Lewes' death, she married Mr. John Cross, but did not survive the marriage many months, dying rather suddenly at Chelsea on Dec. 22 of that year.