BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GEORGE ELIOT

George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans, is one of the most-read Victorian authors today. Her masterpiece, Middlemarch, is one of my favourite classics. Eliot's writing is challenging, engaging and, a reflection of Victorian realism for women. In this blog, I'm helping you get started with her work. But first, a little bit about the author:

Mary Ann Evans, born in 1819 in rural Warwickshire in the UK, was a skilled literary writer. Not only did she write novels, stories, and poems, but she was also a journalist and translator. As a girl, she enjoyed a good education for her gender and social standing.

Evans grew up Christian, but after being introduced to philosophical thinkers, known as the ‘Rosehill Circle’, she developed a new view on religion. Her first publication, in 1840 was a poem called 'Knowing That Shortly I Must Put Off This Tabernacle’. By 1842 she abandoned her faith and stopped going to church, which created a conflict with her father, with whom she lived. This was not the only time she steered away from convention.

In 1851, Evans started writing as a journalist for the Westminster Review. Here, she met many literary figures, including her life partner, Henry Lewes. Not until 1857 did she start writing fiction. Her first story was called “The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton,’ which would eventually be part of her 1858 publication Scenes of Clerical Life. She chose the pen name George Eliot and did not reveal her identity at first. In 1859, she published her first novel Adam Bede. She wrote seven novels in total and despite her untraditional personal life (Lewes was married to another woman, even though he was Evans’ life partner in practice), her work was popular.

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