George Eliot

George Eliot was romantically involved with George Henry Lewes, whom she first met in 1851. Lewes was already married, but since he and his wife were separated for some years, and even his wife was living with another man, they were able to continue their relationship.

Though it was not possible for Lewes to divorce his wife and formally get married to Evans, she started calling herself Mary Ann Evans Lewes, and referred to Lewes as her husband. Extra-marital affairs were not uncommon at that time in Victorian society, but the public admission of the relationship earned them the moral disapproval of the English society.

Later in 1880, two years after the death of Lewes, she married John Cross, a man who was twenty years younger to her, and changed her name to Mary Anne Cross. Though this caused controversy once more in her life, her brother was pleased because they had a legal marriage, and congratulated her.

George Eliot was born on 22 November 1819, Warwickshire, England. She was the second child of an estate manager Robert Evans and his second wife Christiana.

She studied together with her sister at several boarding schools. It developed a religious and self-repressive character in her, which dominated her up to the age of 20.

After her mother’s death and her brother’s marriage a few years later, she and her father moved to a house near Coventry. Shortly after, she started questioning her religious faith, which led to her father refusing to live with her, which forced her to go and live with her brother. Later, her brother and her friends arranged reconciliation, and she respectfully attended church till her father’s death in 1849.

Caring for her invalid father gave her satisfaction, but his death left her with a small income and no duties. After his funeral, she went to Switzerland and lived there for some time with her friends before returning to England to resume her career.

After her return to London in 1850, George Eliot wanted to become a writer. She joined ‘The Westminster Review’, a left wing journal in 1851. Though the official editor was John Chapman, it was Eliot who contributed to most of the work.

Her first complete novel ‘Adam Bede’ was published in 1859. Not only was it an instant success, but it also triggered response in the readers as they wanted to know who this George Eliot was, who possessed such a great intellect. Someone even pretended to be the author, which forced the real George Eliot, Mary Ann Evans, to come forward.

A year later, she wrote ‘The Mill on the Floss’, which was published in three volumes. The story mainly is about her estrangement from her brother Isaac.

She also wrote some of her best essays for ‘The Westminster’ as well as a few stories for ‘Blackwoods Magazine’.

George Eliot's greatest work ‘Middlemarch’ was started in 1869 and completed in 1871. It was first published in eight monthly installments in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’. It is for this novel that she is remembered as the ‘The Victorian Sage’, which definitely was a remarkable achievement for a woman in nineteenth century Britain.

George Eliot's first novel ‘Adam Bede’ was described by her as a country story ‘full of breath of cows and the scent of hay’. The book was not only rich in humor but was also popular because of its masterly realism. It was a combination of deep human sympathy and rigorous moral judgment.

‘Middlemarch’, which is considered to be her best work, was first published in eight installments during 1871-1872. This novel pours light on several important themes such as the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, political reform, hypocrisy, self-interest, and religion. Evans started writing the two pieces that eventually formed ‘Middlemarch’ in the years 1869-1870. She completed the first one in 1871. Initially the reviews were mixed but now it is regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written in English.

Her last novel ‘Daniel Deronda’, which was written in eight parts, was built on the contrast between a poor girl and an upper class one. The keen analysis of the characters in this novel by Evans is appreciated by her critics.