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George Eliot (Pen name of the famous English)

GEORGE ELIOT was the pen name of the famous English writer, Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans. She was born in 1819 at Arbury Farm in Warwickshire and died at Chelsea, December 2, 1880. Her father, Robert Evans, was the agent of Mr. Francis Newdgate, and the first twenty-one years of the novelist's life were spent on the Arbury estate. At her mother's death, while Miss Evans was still in her teens, she became her father's housekeeper and pursued her studies away from school and classes. All through her youth she was somewhat subdued by a very strict religious training, and she was a great reader of religious and philosophical subjects, and in later years wrote of them also. In 1841 the family moved to Coventry, and it was there that Miss Evans made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray, and Mr. Charles Hennell, who became her stanch friends. Both Mr. Bray and Mr. Hennell were men of literary tastes; the latter had, just before this time, published "An Enquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity." Miss Evan's ideas and opinions were much affected by the line of thought this work contained. In 1851 she became the assistant editor of the "Westminster Review." She made several notable contributions to the "Review," and during the time of her connection with it made the acquaintance of many distinguished authors of that period; among them, Herbert Spencer, Carlyle, Harriet Martineau, Francis Newman, and George Henry Lewes. Her friendship with Mr. Lewes led to a closer relationship, which she regarded as a marriage, but which caused much criticism among her friends.

Miss Evans first attempted the writing of fiction in 1856, and published in "Blackwood's Magazine" the first of the "Scenes of Clerical Life." Although she received much encouragement from private sources, notably Charles Dickens, the critics were rather non-committal. Then in 1859 Miss Evans wrote and published what in the judgment of many is her masterpiece, "Adam Bede." It has been said that in the character of Adam Bede she drew a portrait of her father; and certainly Dinah Morris, the heroine of the story, was one of her own favorite characters. There followed "The Mill on the Floss," "Silas Marner," and "Felix Holt." In the latter work she aired her views on the subject of Radicalism.