Introduction


George Eliot
The great author Henry James called her hideously ugly, but James also admitted that George Eliot, whose real name was Mary Anne Evans, was so intelligent that he couldn’t help but fall in love with her. That second part is certainly true: readers have been falling in love with Eliot and her work ever since her first story “Amos Barton,” was published in 1857. She had previously been a journalist and a translator, but once Eliot began to write novels, she turned fiction on its head with richly textured works such as A Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch. Unlike many writers before her, she was interested not so much in what her characters did but how they thought and felt—an interest that paved the way for modern novels that were more experimental than Eliot’s...but never quite as beautiful.

Essential Facts

  1. When Eliot’s first novel, Adam Bede, became a success, several men claimed to have written the book. Eliot was forced to come forward as the rightful author.
  2. When the reading public discovered that Eliot was a woman, they didn’t know whether to condemn her for being an arrogant woman who thought she could write...or praise her for writing so well.
  3. For over thirty years, Eliot lived with philosopher George Henry Lewes, although they never married and Lewes already had a wife.
  4. It has been suggested that Herbert Spencer, a famed British philosopher, had an affair with Eliot and then broke up with her. Afterward, he wrote an essay on the repugnancy of ugly women. All of Eliot’s friends knew whom he was writing about.
  5. British author Virginia Woolf said that Eliot’s Middlemarch was the first novel written for grown-ups.
 

Recommended Resources

  1. George Eliot - Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
  2. George Eliot - Feminism in Literature
  3. Middlemarch Study Guide (eNotes)
  4. Silas Marner Lesson Plans
  5. Silas Marner Study Guide (eNotes)
  6. The Mill on the Floss Study Guide (eNotes)

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)
  2. Adam Bede - Book Review
  3. Adam Bede - Literary Characters
  4. Adam Bede - Literary Places
  5. Adam Bede Criticism
  6. Critical Survey of Short Fiction
  7. Cyclopedia of World Authors
  8. Daniel Deronda (2002)
  9. Daniel Deronda - Literary Characters
  10. Daniel Deronda - Literary Places
  11. Felix Holt, the Radical - Literary Characters
  12. Felix Holt, the Radical Criticism
  13. George Eliot
  14. George Eliot - Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
  15. George Eliot - Feminism in Literature
  16. George Eliot Poetry Criticism
  17. Middlemarch (1993)
  18. Middlemarch - Book Review
  19. Middlemarch - Literary Places
  20. Middlemarch - Masterplots
  21. Middlemarch - Women's Literature Series
  22. Middlemarch Study Guide (eNotes)
  23. Notable British Novelists
  24. Romola - Literary Characters
  25. Romola - Literary Places
  26. Silas Marner (1985)
  27. Silas Marner - Book Review
  28. Silas Marner - Literary Characters
  29. Silas Marner - Literary Places
  30. Silas Marner - Masterplots
  31. Silas Marner - Women's Literature Series
  32. Silas Marner Lesson Plans
  33. Silas Marner Study Guide (eNotes)
  34. The Lifted Veil Criticism
  35. The Lifted Veil Study Guide
  36. The Mill on the Floss (1937)
  37. The Mill on the Floss (1997)
  38. The Mill on the Floss - Book Review
  39. The Mill on the Floss - Literary Characters
  40. The Mill on the Floss - Literary Places
  41. The Mill on the Floss - Masterplots
  42. The Mill on the Floss - Women's Literature Series
  43. The Mill on the Floss Study Guide (eNotes)
  44. The Oxford Companion to English Literature Article on George Eliot
  45. The Oxford Companion to English Literature Article on Silas Marner
  46. The Oxford Companion to English Literature Article on The Mill on the Floss