Biography Category
Name :
Marian George Elliot
Date :
Views :
523
Category :
Birth Date :
22/11/1819
Birth Place :
Arbury Farm, Ashley, Warwickshire, England.
Death Date :
December 22.1880
Not Available
[b]Birth And Family Background[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann (later know as George Eliot) was born on November 22, 1819 to a Warwickshire land agent Robert Evans and Christiana Pearson Evans. Both her parents, though efficient and hard working, neither had the education or the interest in books likely to nurture a novelist. Father Robert Evans was welsh by descent. Mary Ann was the third child from her father’s second marriage. By the time Mary Ann was born, the two children from her father’s first marriage were old enough and out in the world.[br /]
[br /]
Being the youngest child in the family, Mary Ann felt left out for the thought that her father and mother had each other; and her brother and sister were already allies. So she had a passionate longing for someone of her own.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Childhood[/b][br /]
[br /]
As a child, Mary Ann was like most other children sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy. Her sister Christiana was always neat and pretty while little Mary Ann was always untidy with a mane of hair dangling, and with a book in her hand. Christian or Chrissey was thus the favorite of all grown ups.[br /]
[br /]
But it was not as if Mary Ann was totally neglected. As a child she used to go out of the estate with her father for hours and these comprised fond memories of her life.[br /]
[br /]
Soon after her birth, her mother’s health suffered. In 1825 when Mary Ann was six years old she and her sister were first sent to a small school, at Attleboro. Later, the elder girl was sent to a school and Mary Ann with her brother spent part of everyday at a dame–school close to their own gates.[br /]
[br /]
In her eighth or ninth year, she was sent to a school too, run by Mrs Wallington at Nuneaton. In her 13th year, she was transferred to a school at Coventry.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Child Prodigy[/b][br /]
[br /]
By this time, it had become obvious that there was something remarkable about the child. Coventry school was kept by two ladies named Franklin, the daughters of a Baptist Minister, to whom Mary Ann was the most promising of their pupils. Here she mastered French, German and music. Displaying the musical skill, she became the best performer. But she declared that she had "no soul for music," and was a "tasteless person". This was due to some difficulty in yielding to passion.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Sudden Responsibilities[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann Evans left school finally at the end of 1835. Her mother died in the summer of 1836, after a long illness. The following spring, Mary Ann’s elder sister, Christiana, married Mr Edward Clarke, a surgeon in Warwickshire and Mary Ann undertook the charge of her father’s household at Griff, and was said to have become an "exemplary housewife". Along with promoting various charitable works, she continued studying Italian, German and music.[br /]
[br /]
When she was just 21, a change took place in her life which was to produce most important results. Her brother got married, and it was arranged that he should takeover his father’s business at Griff. Mr Robert Evans, her father, now 66, migrated to Coventry with Mary Ann. She was a lonely bird here, having no companion of her age. But at the same time she gained new set of experiences. In her 20s, Mary Ann felt that she lacked physical attractiveness but she was sure that she had the real power of mind and that she was no ordinary woman.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Doubt In Faith[/b][br /]
[br /]
Foleshill at Coventry was a town larger than Griff where she was always serious and shy and felt distanced from those around her. She continued her studies and spent her evenings reading Sir Walter Scott to her father, whose health was failing. On 2nd Nov. 1841, Mary Ann was invited to the home of Charles and Carabray. In them, she found the same doubts about Christianity that she had. In 1842 she stopped going to church. Her correspondence with her long-time friend Maria Lewis started dwindling because of the very same reason. Her father, disturbed by her heresy, refused to speak to her. Though a truce was effected on the issue, their relations remained strained.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Death Of Father[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1844 Mary Ann began work on English translation of David Friedrich Strauss’ Das Leben Jesu. The translation took two years to complete and her name did not appear on publication. Meanwhile, her father’s health continued to fail and he died in June 1849.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Westminster Review[/b][br /]
[br /]
After staying alone in Geneva for some time, she returned to England in 1850 and resolved to move to London. At Rose Hill she came into contact with John Chapman, a London based publisher and bookseller. In 1851, Chapman purchased the Westminster Review. Mary Ann was his first choice as an editor. She edited 10 issues Westminster Review during next two years. Editing reviews she grew tired, depressed and her health started failing.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Meeting George Lewis[/b][br /]
[br /]
She lived a lonely life at 33, when she met George Henry Lewis in October 1851. George Henry Lewis was 36 years old, about three years older than her. He had been himself a playwright and actor. Lewis was a married man. But his married life was not a happy one as his wife was seduced by Thornton Hunt. Hunt was the father of two of the children bearing the name of Lewis. Lewis got divorced from his wife, made an allowance to her and children and lived apart when he met Mary Ann for the first time.[br /]
[br /]
He came to visit Mary Ann at The Strand often enough, by April 1853 to enter a close connection. By November, they drew extremely close. They were deeply in love. In July 1854, her translation of Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity was published. Her name appeared on the title page, for the first and perhaps the last time.[br /]
[br /]
[b]A Bold Step[/b][br /]
[br /]
The love triumphed over all the conventionalities and Mary Ann decided to live openly with George Lewis as his beloved and spiritual wife. For the eight months spent in Germany in 1854 along with George Lewis, Mary Ann remarked that she was quite happy. Mary Ann moved to London in April and along with Lewis, took rooms as Mr and Mrs Lewis, and their unofficial marriage officially began.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Name And Fame[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann took over the "Belle Letters" section of the Westminster Review, which gave her ample cause to think about what exactly made good fiction.In June of 1856, Mary Ann and George moved to Tenby on the Coast of South Wales. There she thought more and more about her childhood dream of writing a fiction. George Lewis encouraged her to try her hand at fiction. Mary Ann began writing The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton. When Lewis read Amos Bartons Story, he sent it to his publisher, John Blackwood, claiming it was the work of a male friend who wanted to remain anonymous. It was then that Mary Ann adopted ‘George Eliot’ as her pen name.[br /]
[br /]
In 1857, when Eliot revealed to her family that the marriage with Lewis was not a legal one, she became an outcast in the eyes of her family. After the publication of Scenes of Clerical Life, there was much talk about the supposed identity of George Eliot, but Mary Ann kept her secret. In October 1857, she began work on Adam Bede. The critics highly praised the book and it was a sensational success. Even Queen Victoria loved it.[br /]
[br /]
In 1859, both Eliot and Lewis purchased their first home at Southfields. By this time, the secret of George Eliot’s identity wasn’t very secret. Blackwood published her Novel, The Mill on the Floss with George Eliot appearing on the title page and when the book came out, it was a success despite all the worry about the controversial nature of Mary Ann’s relationship with Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
In 1860, Mary Ann and Lewis moved back to London where she became depressed with her new surroundings and even Lewis could not revive her spirits. Both received few visitors, among which there were only one or two female visitors, one was Rufa Hennell. She was not only the first to call upon them, but also the first to invite them over for dinner. In April 1861, after the publication of Silas Marner, Mary Ann left for Italy to begin research for her next novel Ramola, to be set in 15th century Florence. As Eliot’s fame increased and her reputation as a fiction writer grew, her social circle continued to widen. The more popular Eliot’s novels grew, the more accepting London society became of her relationship with Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann began serious work on Middlemarch in 1869, which was published by Blackwood in parts from 1871-72. The novel was a success. If George Eliot was famous before, she was doubly famous after the publication of Middlemarch. She became rich and once socially ostracized, the couple now could not get away from a constant stream of visitors.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Loss Of Lewis[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1874, Eliot began work on what would be her final novel, Daniel Daronda, which came out in 1876. Her health faltered, as her fame continued to grow and by this time she was regarded as "the greatest living English novelist". At their London home, among the tide of visitors, one person was always welcomed and he was John Cross, their business manager, whom they referred to as their ‘dear nephew’. John Cross found them both a lovely home that they had always dreamt about.[br /]
[br /]
In mid – 1878, Lewis began to suffer from horrible cramps every night and by November, he could no longer conceal his agony and Mary Ann wrote "I have a deep sense of change within, and of a permanently closer companionship with death". Within a month, her lifelong partner and support had died. He passed away at their home in London on November 30, 1878. John Cross was still a visitor to Mary Ann, fearing that too long of a solitude might prove fatal to her.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Life After Lewis[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann began the task of completing Lewis’s unfinished Problems of Life and Mind and decided to establish a trust in his name, the George Henry Lewis studentship in Physiology. Meanwhile she grew closer to Cross. Finally, Mary Ann accepted a proposal of marriage from Cross and they got married on April 9,1880. In the month of December her health worsened. Due to her kidney problem, she was in much pain all the time. She passed away at 10 o’clock on the night of 22nd December, and Cross was left alone. She was buried in Highgate cemetery, London, next to her spiritual husband George Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann (later know as George Eliot) was born on November 22, 1819 to a Warwickshire land agent Robert Evans and Christiana Pearson Evans. Both her parents, though efficient and hard working, neither had the education or the interest in books likely to nurture a novelist. Father Robert Evans was welsh by descent. Mary Ann was the third child from her father’s second marriage. By the time Mary Ann was born, the two children from her father’s first marriage were old enough and out in the world.[br /]
[br /]
Being the youngest child in the family, Mary Ann felt left out for the thought that her father and mother had each other; and her brother and sister were already allies. So she had a passionate longing for someone of her own.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Childhood[/b][br /]
[br /]
As a child, Mary Ann was like most other children sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy. Her sister Christiana was always neat and pretty while little Mary Ann was always untidy with a mane of hair dangling, and with a book in her hand. Christian or Chrissey was thus the favorite of all grown ups.[br /]
[br /]
But it was not as if Mary Ann was totally neglected. As a child she used to go out of the estate with her father for hours and these comprised fond memories of her life.[br /]
[br /]
Soon after her birth, her mother’s health suffered. In 1825 when Mary Ann was six years old she and her sister were first sent to a small school, at Attleboro. Later, the elder girl was sent to a school and Mary Ann with her brother spent part of everyday at a dame–school close to their own gates.[br /]
[br /]
In her eighth or ninth year, she was sent to a school too, run by Mrs Wallington at Nuneaton. In her 13th year, she was transferred to a school at Coventry.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Child Prodigy[/b][br /]
[br /]
By this time, it had become obvious that there was something remarkable about the child. Coventry school was kept by two ladies named Franklin, the daughters of a Baptist Minister, to whom Mary Ann was the most promising of their pupils. Here she mastered French, German and music. Displaying the musical skill, she became the best performer. But she declared that she had "no soul for music," and was a "tasteless person". This was due to some difficulty in yielding to passion.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Sudden Responsibilities[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann Evans left school finally at the end of 1835. Her mother died in the summer of 1836, after a long illness. The following spring, Mary Ann’s elder sister, Christiana, married Mr Edward Clarke, a surgeon in Warwickshire and Mary Ann undertook the charge of her father’s household at Griff, and was said to have become an "exemplary housewife". Along with promoting various charitable works, she continued studying Italian, German and music.[br /]
[br /]
When she was just 21, a change took place in her life which was to produce most important results. Her brother got married, and it was arranged that he should takeover his father’s business at Griff. Mr Robert Evans, her father, now 66, migrated to Coventry with Mary Ann. She was a lonely bird here, having no companion of her age. But at the same time she gained new set of experiences. In her 20s, Mary Ann felt that she lacked physical attractiveness but she was sure that she had the real power of mind and that she was no ordinary woman.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Doubt In Faith[/b][br /]
[br /]
Foleshill at Coventry was a town larger than Griff where she was always serious and shy and felt distanced from those around her. She continued her studies and spent her evenings reading Sir Walter Scott to her father, whose health was failing. On 2nd Nov. 1841, Mary Ann was invited to the home of Charles and Carabray. In them, she found the same doubts about Christianity that she had. In 1842 she stopped going to church. Her correspondence with her long-time friend Maria Lewis started dwindling because of the very same reason. Her father, disturbed by her heresy, refused to speak to her. Though a truce was effected on the issue, their relations remained strained.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Death Of Father[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1844 Mary Ann began work on English translation of David Friedrich Strauss’ Das Leben Jesu. The translation took two years to complete and her name did not appear on publication. Meanwhile, her father’s health continued to fail and he died in June 1849.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Westminster Review[/b][br /]
[br /]
After staying alone in Geneva for some time, she returned to England in 1850 and resolved to move to London. At Rose Hill she came into contact with John Chapman, a London based publisher and bookseller. In 1851, Chapman purchased the Westminster Review. Mary Ann was his first choice as an editor. She edited 10 issues Westminster Review during next two years. Editing reviews she grew tired, depressed and her health started failing.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Meeting George Lewis[/b][br /]
[br /]
She lived a lonely life at 33, when she met George Henry Lewis in October 1851. George Henry Lewis was 36 years old, about three years older than her. He had been himself a playwright and actor. Lewis was a married man. But his married life was not a happy one as his wife was seduced by Thornton Hunt. Hunt was the father of two of the children bearing the name of Lewis. Lewis got divorced from his wife, made an allowance to her and children and lived apart when he met Mary Ann for the first time.[br /]
[br /]
He came to visit Mary Ann at The Strand often enough, by April 1853 to enter a close connection. By November, they drew extremely close. They were deeply in love. In July 1854, her translation of Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity was published. Her name appeared on the title page, for the first and perhaps the last time.[br /]
[br /]
[b]A Bold Step[/b][br /]
[br /]
The love triumphed over all the conventionalities and Mary Ann decided to live openly with George Lewis as his beloved and spiritual wife. For the eight months spent in Germany in 1854 along with George Lewis, Mary Ann remarked that she was quite happy. Mary Ann moved to London in April and along with Lewis, took rooms as Mr and Mrs Lewis, and their unofficial marriage officially began.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Name And Fame[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann took over the "Belle Letters" section of the Westminster Review, which gave her ample cause to think about what exactly made good fiction.In June of 1856, Mary Ann and George moved to Tenby on the Coast of South Wales. There she thought more and more about her childhood dream of writing a fiction. George Lewis encouraged her to try her hand at fiction. Mary Ann began writing The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton. When Lewis read Amos Bartons Story, he sent it to his publisher, John Blackwood, claiming it was the work of a male friend who wanted to remain anonymous. It was then that Mary Ann adopted ‘George Eliot’ as her pen name.[br /]
[br /]
In 1857, when Eliot revealed to her family that the marriage with Lewis was not a legal one, she became an outcast in the eyes of her family. After the publication of Scenes of Clerical Life, there was much talk about the supposed identity of George Eliot, but Mary Ann kept her secret. In October 1857, she began work on Adam Bede. The critics highly praised the book and it was a sensational success. Even Queen Victoria loved it.[br /]
[br /]
In 1859, both Eliot and Lewis purchased their first home at Southfields. By this time, the secret of George Eliot’s identity wasn’t very secret. Blackwood published her Novel, The Mill on the Floss with George Eliot appearing on the title page and when the book came out, it was a success despite all the worry about the controversial nature of Mary Ann’s relationship with Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
In 1860, Mary Ann and Lewis moved back to London where she became depressed with her new surroundings and even Lewis could not revive her spirits. Both received few visitors, among which there were only one or two female visitors, one was Rufa Hennell. She was not only the first to call upon them, but also the first to invite them over for dinner. In April 1861, after the publication of Silas Marner, Mary Ann left for Italy to begin research for her next novel Ramola, to be set in 15th century Florence. As Eliot’s fame increased and her reputation as a fiction writer grew, her social circle continued to widen. The more popular Eliot’s novels grew, the more accepting London society became of her relationship with Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann began serious work on Middlemarch in 1869, which was published by Blackwood in parts from 1871-72. The novel was a success. If George Eliot was famous before, she was doubly famous after the publication of Middlemarch. She became rich and once socially ostracized, the couple now could not get away from a constant stream of visitors.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Loss Of Lewis[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1874, Eliot began work on what would be her final novel, Daniel Daronda, which came out in 1876. Her health faltered, as her fame continued to grow and by this time she was regarded as "the greatest living English novelist". At their London home, among the tide of visitors, one person was always welcomed and he was John Cross, their business manager, whom they referred to as their ‘dear nephew’. John Cross found them both a lovely home that they had always dreamt about.[br /]
[br /]
In mid – 1878, Lewis began to suffer from horrible cramps every night and by November, he could no longer conceal his agony and Mary Ann wrote "I have a deep sense of change within, and of a permanently closer companionship with death". Within a month, her lifelong partner and support had died. He passed away at their home in London on November 30, 1878. John Cross was still a visitor to Mary Ann, fearing that too long of a solitude might prove fatal to her.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Life After Lewis[/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann began the task of completing Lewis’s unfinished Problems of Life and Mind and decided to establish a trust in his name, the George Henry Lewis studentship in Physiology. Meanwhile she grew closer to Cross. Finally, Mary Ann accepted a proposal of marriage from Cross and they got married on April 9,1880. In the month of December her health worsened. Due to her kidney problem, she was in much pain all the time. She passed away at 10 o’clock on the night of 22nd December, and Cross was left alone. She was buried in Highgate cemetery, London, next to her spiritual husband George Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]George Marian Eliot [1819-1880][/b][br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann was known to the world as George Eliot. Paving her way Through the male dominated world of early 19th century English Literature, she left an undeniable imprint on the minds and hearts of the readers. The lack of high educational background did not deter her from becoming one of the most memorable icons of English Literature.
[br /]
[br /]
Her Works like "Mill On The Floss" and "Middlemarch" mirror the English society and are regarded more as social documents of her times. She was a fiction writer and a philosopher in the sense that she had reflected long and seriously with all her very remarkable intellectual power.
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Mary Ann was known to the world as George Eliot. Paving her way Through the male dominated world of early 19th century English Literature, she left an undeniable imprint on the minds and hearts of the readers. The lack of high educational background did not deter her from becoming one of the most memorable icons of English Literature.
[br /]
[br /]
Her Works like "Mill On The Floss" and "Middlemarch" mirror the English society and are regarded more as social documents of her times. She was a fiction writer and a philosopher in the sense that she had reflected long and seriously with all her very remarkable intellectual power.
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]1819[/b][br /]
Was born on November 22 as Mary Ann Evans at Arbury Farm, Ashley, Warwickshire, England.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1825[/b][br /]
At the age of six, Mary Ann was sent to school.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1828-1832[/b][br /]
She was at Mrs Wellington’s School in Nuneaton.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1832-1835[/b][br /]
Mary Ann was at Miss Franklin’s School at Coventry. At the end of 1835, she left the school.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1839[/b][br /]
Mrs Evans, Mary Ann’s mother died and Mary Ann took the charge of the household at the age of 19.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1841[/b][br /]
Mary Ann’s father and she moved to a new home at Foleshill.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1842[/b][br /]
She stopped going to church.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1844[/b][br /]
Mary Ann began work on an English translation of David Friedrich Strauss’ Das Leben Jesu, one of the most influential works of religious thought read in England at that time.[br /]
[br /]
[b][b]1846[/b][/b][br /]
Translation of Das Leben Jesu completed.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1849[/b][br /]
Mary Ann’s father Robert Evans died. She was 29 at that time.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1850 [/b][br /]
Mary Ann returned to England from Geneva and resolved to move to London. Here she came into contact with John Chapman, a London publisher and bookseller.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1851-1853 [/b][br /]
Chapman offered Mary Ann assistant editorship of Westminster Review. In this capacity, she was much thrown into the society of Herbert Spencer and George H Lewis. In October 1851, she met George Henry Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1853 [/b][br /]
The intimacy of Mary Ann with George Henry Lewis grew far beyond their expectations and an unconventional relationship began.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1854[/b][br /]
In July Mary Ann’s translation of Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity was published with her name appearing on the title page.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1856[/b][br /]
In June, Mary Ann and George Lewis moved to Tenby on the coast of South Whales. In August, they moved back to London and on September 23rd Mary Ann began to write The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, which later became a part of Scenes of Clerical Life.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1857[/b][br /]
The Sad Fortunes of Reverend Amos Barton appeared in the Blackwood’s Magazine. She began work on Adam Bede.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1858[/b][br /]
In September, Eliot completed the work on Adam Bede.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1859[/b][br /]
Eliot and Lewis purchased their first home at Southfields.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1860-1861[/b][br /]
Eliot visited Florence with the view of preparing herself for her work Ramola which appeared in 1863 in Cornhill Magazine.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1868-1871[/b][br /]
She produced The Spanish Gipsy, Agetha, The Legend of Jubal and Armgart. In 1869 began work on Middlemarch.[br /]
[br /]
[b][b]1871-1872[/b][/b][br /]
Middlemarch was published in parts by Blackwood.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1874[/b][br /]
Eliot began work on her final novel Daniel Deronda. [br /]
Began to suffer from kidney stones in February.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1876[/b][br /]
Daniel Deronda was published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1878[/b][br /]
She published The Impressions of Theophrastus Such, a collection of miscellaneous essays. In the same year George Lewis died and on 30th November this event plunged Eliot into melancholy.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1880[/b][br /]
On the 9th of April Eliot married Mr John Cross, an intimate friend. Eliot died following her kidney problem at 10 O’clock, on the night of December 22.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Was born on November 22 as Mary Ann Evans at Arbury Farm, Ashley, Warwickshire, England.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1825[/b][br /]
At the age of six, Mary Ann was sent to school.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1828-1832[/b][br /]
She was at Mrs Wellington’s School in Nuneaton.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1832-1835[/b][br /]
Mary Ann was at Miss Franklin’s School at Coventry. At the end of 1835, she left the school.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1839[/b][br /]
Mrs Evans, Mary Ann’s mother died and Mary Ann took the charge of the household at the age of 19.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1841[/b][br /]
Mary Ann’s father and she moved to a new home at Foleshill.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1842[/b][br /]
She stopped going to church.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1844[/b][br /]
Mary Ann began work on an English translation of David Friedrich Strauss’ Das Leben Jesu, one of the most influential works of religious thought read in England at that time.[br /]
[br /]
[b][b]1846[/b][/b][br /]
Translation of Das Leben Jesu completed.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1849[/b][br /]
Mary Ann’s father Robert Evans died. She was 29 at that time.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1850 [/b][br /]
Mary Ann returned to England from Geneva and resolved to move to London. Here she came into contact with John Chapman, a London publisher and bookseller.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1851-1853 [/b][br /]
Chapman offered Mary Ann assistant editorship of Westminster Review. In this capacity, she was much thrown into the society of Herbert Spencer and George H Lewis. In October 1851, she met George Henry Lewis.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1853 [/b][br /]
The intimacy of Mary Ann with George Henry Lewis grew far beyond their expectations and an unconventional relationship began.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1854[/b][br /]
In July Mary Ann’s translation of Feuerbach’s Essence of Christianity was published with her name appearing on the title page.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1856[/b][br /]
In June, Mary Ann and George Lewis moved to Tenby on the coast of South Whales. In August, they moved back to London and on September 23rd Mary Ann began to write The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, which later became a part of Scenes of Clerical Life.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1857[/b][br /]
The Sad Fortunes of Reverend Amos Barton appeared in the Blackwood’s Magazine. She began work on Adam Bede.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1858[/b][br /]
In September, Eliot completed the work on Adam Bede.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1859[/b][br /]
Eliot and Lewis purchased their first home at Southfields.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1860-1861[/b][br /]
Eliot visited Florence with the view of preparing herself for her work Ramola which appeared in 1863 in Cornhill Magazine.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1868-1871[/b][br /]
She produced The Spanish Gipsy, Agetha, The Legend of Jubal and Armgart. In 1869 began work on Middlemarch.[br /]
[br /]
[b][b]1871-1872[/b][/b][br /]
Middlemarch was published in parts by Blackwood.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1874[/b][br /]
Eliot began work on her final novel Daniel Deronda. [br /]
Began to suffer from kidney stones in February.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1876[/b][br /]
Daniel Deronda was published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1878[/b][br /]
She published The Impressions of Theophrastus Such, a collection of miscellaneous essays. In the same year George Lewis died and on 30th November this event plunged Eliot into melancholy.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1880[/b][br /]
On the 9th of April Eliot married Mr John Cross, an intimate friend. Eliot died following her kidney problem at 10 O’clock, on the night of December 22.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Translation of Hennell of Strauss’s Life of Jesus[/b][/i][br /]
This was her first literary work, the completion of a translation began by Mrs Hennell of Strauss.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Essence of Christianity[/b][/i][br /]
This was again a translation of Feuerbach, the only one of her writings, which has her real name.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Scenes of Clerical Life[/b][/i][br /]
This work which appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine announced that a new writer of singular power had arisen. Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story and Janet’s Repentance along with The Sad Fortune… were reprinted as Scenes from Clerical Life (1857).[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Adam Bede (1858)[/b][/i][br /]
The idea of Adam Bede germinated from an anecdote told her by her Methodist aunt who had accomplished a condemned girl to her place of execution at Griff in 1839. The real substance of Adam Bede is all the country background of her youth.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][i][b]Silas Marner (1861)[/b][/i][/i][br /]
Silas Marner unfolded itself from the merest millet-seed of thought : the recollection of having once, in early childhood, seen a linen-weaver with a bag on his back and ‘an expression of face that led her to think’ he was alien from his fellows. Both works are set further back in time than the remote personal past of Mary Ann Evans. Both offer richly detailed pictures of traditional rural life in Midlands towards the end of 18th Century revealing her concern, shared with Lewis, Spencer and other mid-century thinkers.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Ramola[/b][/i][br /]
Ramola was Eliot’s 4th novel which marked a turning point in her life and which was different from her earlier works. She quoted : ‘I began it as a young woman - I finished it as an old woman." The theme of Ramola was Lewis’ suggestion, made during their stay in Florence in 1860. Lewis encouraged her to believe that she could do something in historical romance, rather different in character from what had been done before.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]The Mill on the Floss[/b][/i][br /]
It’s George Eliot’s most autobiographical novel. It is said that it is the book she wrote because it was impossible for her to write an autobiography. Her sole purpose in writing the novel, she said was, ‘to show the conflict that is going on everywhere’ when the younger generation with its higher culture comes into collision with the older generation. The Mill on the Floss presents a picture of childhood and of relations between brother and sister and parents which has rarely been bettered.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b][b]The Spanish Gypsy[/b][/b][/i][br /]
It is her longest and most sustained attempt at poetic composition. Its subject was suggested to her by a picture of the Annunciation seen at Venice in May 1864, which prompted a train of reflections leading to the ‘thought that here was a great dramatic motive’, never before used, that was of the same cloth class as those used by the Greek dramatists, yet specifically differing from them.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Collection of Poems[/b][/i][br /]
Other poems Agatha, The Legend of Jubal and other poems and Armgart, though containing fine work did not add to her reputation. The Legend of Jubal, the title poem of 1874 collection is more ambitious in performance. It is mythical narrative of Eliot’s own concoction, consisting of more than 900 lines of iambic pentameter couplets. Armgart had many points of interest[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b][b]Felix Holt[/b][/b][/i][br /]
Up to a point, Felix Holt can be described as a political novel. The historical moment, during which it is set, is a time when faith in the efficacy of political change was at fever pitch in ardent Reforms. The qualities and destinies of the characters are not seen in political terms, but in moral and spiritual terms, and the lucid positive determinants are fellow-feeling and the capacity for vision.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][i][b]Middlemarch : A Study of Provincial Life[/b][/i][/i][br /]
It is Mary Ann Evans' masterpiece and one of the classic works of 19th century realistic fiction. Within the comprehensive historical framework, Middlemarch contains a rich moral and psychological exploration of character and motive in the George Eliot Canon.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Daniel Deronda (1876)[/b][/i][br /]
Daniel Deronda was an extraordinary departure for George Eliot. This seventh novel of Eliot was not set in the Midlands; and unlike all others it was not set in the past. The Jewish characters and settings were unexpected. Her intuitions in Daniel Deronda was informative : to break down English stupidity and prevjudice concerning Jews, as well as the ‘spirit of arrogance and contemptuous dictatorialness’ that she regarded as a national disgrace.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
This was her first literary work, the completion of a translation began by Mrs Hennell of Strauss.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Essence of Christianity[/b][/i][br /]
This was again a translation of Feuerbach, the only one of her writings, which has her real name.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Scenes of Clerical Life[/b][/i][br /]
This work which appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine announced that a new writer of singular power had arisen. Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story and Janet’s Repentance along with The Sad Fortune… were reprinted as Scenes from Clerical Life (1857).[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Adam Bede (1858)[/b][/i][br /]
The idea of Adam Bede germinated from an anecdote told her by her Methodist aunt who had accomplished a condemned girl to her place of execution at Griff in 1839. The real substance of Adam Bede is all the country background of her youth.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][i][b]Silas Marner (1861)[/b][/i][/i][br /]
Silas Marner unfolded itself from the merest millet-seed of thought : the recollection of having once, in early childhood, seen a linen-weaver with a bag on his back and ‘an expression of face that led her to think’ he was alien from his fellows. Both works are set further back in time than the remote personal past of Mary Ann Evans. Both offer richly detailed pictures of traditional rural life in Midlands towards the end of 18th Century revealing her concern, shared with Lewis, Spencer and other mid-century thinkers.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Ramola[/b][/i][br /]
Ramola was Eliot’s 4th novel which marked a turning point in her life and which was different from her earlier works. She quoted : ‘I began it as a young woman - I finished it as an old woman." The theme of Ramola was Lewis’ suggestion, made during their stay in Florence in 1860. Lewis encouraged her to believe that she could do something in historical romance, rather different in character from what had been done before.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]The Mill on the Floss[/b][/i][br /]
It’s George Eliot’s most autobiographical novel. It is said that it is the book she wrote because it was impossible for her to write an autobiography. Her sole purpose in writing the novel, she said was, ‘to show the conflict that is going on everywhere’ when the younger generation with its higher culture comes into collision with the older generation. The Mill on the Floss presents a picture of childhood and of relations between brother and sister and parents which has rarely been bettered.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b][b]The Spanish Gypsy[/b][/b][/i][br /]
It is her longest and most sustained attempt at poetic composition. Its subject was suggested to her by a picture of the Annunciation seen at Venice in May 1864, which prompted a train of reflections leading to the ‘thought that here was a great dramatic motive’, never before used, that was of the same cloth class as those used by the Greek dramatists, yet specifically differing from them.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Collection of Poems[/b][/i][br /]
Other poems Agatha, The Legend of Jubal and other poems and Armgart, though containing fine work did not add to her reputation. The Legend of Jubal, the title poem of 1874 collection is more ambitious in performance. It is mythical narrative of Eliot’s own concoction, consisting of more than 900 lines of iambic pentameter couplets. Armgart had many points of interest[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b][b]Felix Holt[/b][/b][/i][br /]
Up to a point, Felix Holt can be described as a political novel. The historical moment, during which it is set, is a time when faith in the efficacy of political change was at fever pitch in ardent Reforms. The qualities and destinies of the characters are not seen in political terms, but in moral and spiritual terms, and the lucid positive determinants are fellow-feeling and the capacity for vision.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][i][b]Middlemarch : A Study of Provincial Life[/b][/i][/i][br /]
It is Mary Ann Evans' masterpiece and one of the classic works of 19th century realistic fiction. Within the comprehensive historical framework, Middlemarch contains a rich moral and psychological exploration of character and motive in the George Eliot Canon.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]Daniel Deronda (1876)[/b][/i][br /]
Daniel Deronda was an extraordinary departure for George Eliot. This seventh novel of Eliot was not set in the Midlands; and unlike all others it was not set in the past. The Jewish characters and settings were unexpected. Her intuitions in Daniel Deronda was informative : to break down English stupidity and prevjudice concerning Jews, as well as the ‘spirit of arrogance and contemptuous dictatorialness’ that she regarded as a national disgrace.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other ?[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] I’m not denying that women are foolish; God Almighty made’em to match men.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Blessed, is the Man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] The realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] There are glances of hatred that stab, and raise no cry of murder.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Sorrow is a part of love and love does not seek to throw it off.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] A man’s mind – what there is of it – has always the advantage of being masculine – as the smallest birch tree is of a higher kind than the most soaring palm – and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Destiny stands by sarcastic without dramatis personae folded in her hand.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] And, of course, men know best about everything, except what women know better.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] And as for the farm, if anything turns out wrong, as it can’t but do in these times, there’s nothing that kills a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself. It’s a deal the best way o’being master, to let somebody do the ordering, and keep the blaming in your own hands. It’ud save many a man a stroke, I believe.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] I know that I must expect trials, uncle. Marriage is a state of higher duties, I never thought of it as mere personal ease.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Marriage, which has been the borne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden, but had their first little among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic – the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years as a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Childhood has no forebodings, but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] There is no sense of ease like the ease we felt in those scenes where we were born, where objects became dear to us before we had known the labor of choice.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] No compliment can be eloquent except as an expression of indifference.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Love is natural, but surely pity and faithfulness and memory are natural too.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] We can’t choose happiness either for ourselves or for another; we can’t tell where that will lie. We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment or whether we will renounce that ‘for the sake of obeying the divine voice’ within us, for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] The only effect I ardently long to produce by my writings, is that those who read them should be better able to imagine and to feel the pains and the joys of those who differ from themselves in everything but the broad fact of being struggling erring human creatures.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] What could be more contemptible than the mood of mind which makes a man measure the justice of divine or human law by the agreeableness of his own shadow and the ample satisfaction of his own desires.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] I was a young fellow once, and now I am getting an old and wise one. Old, at any rate; which is a gift that comes to everybody if they live long enough, so it raises no jealousy.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] A fish honestly invited to come and be eaten has a clear course in declining, but how if it finds itself swimming against a net ?[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] There is a way of looking at our life daily as an escape, and taking the quiet return of morn and evening --- still more the star like out-glowing of some pure fellow- feeling, some generous impulse breaking our inward darkness – as a salvation that reconciles us to hardship.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] A man who has no feeling for the classics couldn’t make a better apology for coming into the world than by increasing the quantity of food to maintain scholars – and rectors who appreciate scholars.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] The best happiness I shall ever know will be to escape the worst misery.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Sympathy is but a living again through our own past in a new form …[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [Truth Telling] is apt to be easy to people when they only wound others and not themselves.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Consistency ? – I never changed my mind, which is, and always was to live at ease.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] Blows are sarcasm turned stupid; wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] A panting man thinks of himself as clever swimmer; but a fish swims much better, and takes his performance as a matter of course.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] But it is with men as with trees; if you lop off their finest branches,...the wounds will be healed over with some rough boss, some odd excrescence; and what might have been a grand tree expanding into liberal shade, is but a whimsical misshapen trunk. Many an irritating fault, many an unlovely oddity, has come of a hard sorrow, which has crushed and maimed the nature just when it was expanding into plenteous beauty; and the trivial erring life which we visit with our harsh blame, may be but as the unsteady motion of a man whose best limb is withered.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] But always there is seed being sown silently and unseen, and everywhere there come sweet flowers without our foresight or labor. We reap what we sow, but nature has love over and above that justice, and gives us shadow and blossom and fruit that spring from no planting of ours.[br /]
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