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George Eliot Facts

George Eliot Facts
George Eliot is the pen name for Mary Ann Evans, who was an English novelist in the Victorian era. She was born Mary Ann Evans on November 22nd, 1819, in Warwickshire, England, to Robert Evans, an estate manager, and Christiana Pearson Evans, the daughter of a mill-owner. Mary Ann developed a love of reading at a young age, and attended school in Attenborough, then at Mrs. Wallington's school in Nuneaton, and finally at Miss Franklin's school in Coventry. When she was 16 Mary Ann's mother died and she returned home. She lived with her father until his death when she was 30. She traveled for a brief period and then moved to London to become a writer.
Interesting George Eliot Facts:
When Mary Ann's brother Isaac got married she moved to Foleshill with her father. There she met Charles Bray, a wealthy man who introduced her to a variety of free-thinking individuals including Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Charles Bray published some of Mary Ann Evan's early writing, in his newspaper Coventry Herald and Observer.
Mary Ann Evans' first major work was an English translation of Life of Jesus (1846) written by David Strauss.
Mary Ann Evan's friendship with the Bray family and their radical-view and progressive thinking social circle caused her problems with her father. He threatened to throw her out of the house because she was questioning her faith. She was never actually thrown out.
When Mary Ann Evans moved to London to start her writing career, after her father's death, she called herself Marian Evans.
In 1851 Mary Ann Evans became an assistant editor at The Westminster Review. The journal's publisher was John Chapman; he was the publisher of her translation of Life of Jesus a few years earlier.
In 1851 Mary Ann Evans met George Henry Lewes. He was a critic and philosopher, and although he was married, soon began to live with Mary Ann.
In 1856 Mary Ann Evans' essay "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" was published in The Westminster Review. It criticized women's contemporary fiction writing.
Mary Ann Evans adopted the pen name George Eliot as a tribute to George Lewes. The name 'Eliot' was a code for "to L - I owe it".
Mary Ann Evans first novel, published under the pen name George Eliot, was Adam Bede. It was published in 1859, and has remained in print and is used in university studies of English literature in the 19th century.
George Eliot's novels include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1863), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871-72), and Daniel Deronda (1876).
George Eliot also wrote poetry, and published a variety of non-fiction translations.
George Eliot's writing was praised specifically for its depiction of real life and for its psychological insight. She also wrote a historical novel Romola, which was set in Florence in the 1400s.
In May of 1880 Mary Evans married John Cross. He was 20 years younger than her.
In December of 1880 Mary Evans died, at the age of 61. She had been ill with kidney disease for a few years and a throat infection added to her ill health.


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