Probably the most profound fact about George Eliot is that George isn't a man. Her name, in fact, is Mary Ann Evans. Evans used a male pen name to assure her works would be taken seriously. She also aimed to escape the stereotype that only women can write lighthearted Romances. Evans was of high intelligence and a voracious reader from a young age. She wanted her works to be judged separately from her editing and didn't want her personal life involved either. These and a few others are legitimate reasons for the use of her pen name. Evans was a prominent British author of nineteenth century developing the method of psychological analysis of modern fiction. Mary Ann Evans was born on November 22, 1819,in Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England.
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She had a hard time discovering how she would live off the 100 pound a year inheritance her father had given her. “After John Chapman, the publisher of The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, got her a chance to review R.W. Mackay’s The Progress of the Intellect in The Westminster Review (January 1851), she decided to settle in London as a freelance writer”(Haight). After living in London for around a year, Evans met George Henry Lewes, the most versatile of Victorian journalists. Although he could not legally be married since he already was, the two moved to Germany together in 1854 and lived happily together until his death in …show more content…
In 1856, she began Scenes of Clerical Life, stories about the people of her native Warwickshire. These stories were published in Blackwood's Magazine. She wrote her first novel, Adam Bede, in 1859 and it was a great success. She used a male pen name, George Eliot, to ensure her works would be taken seriously in an era when female authors were usually associated with romantic novels. The other novels she wrote include The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1863), Middlemarch (1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). The popularity of Eliot's novels brought social acceptance, and Lewes and Evan’s home became a meeting place for writers and intellectuals (BBC). Shortly after Lewes died, Evans met John Walter Cross, whose mother had just died. The two were married in May of 1880, her being twenty-one years older, and she died in her country house in December of that
She had a hard time discovering how she would live off the 100 pound a year inheritance her father had given her. “After John Chapman, the publisher of The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, got her a chance to review R.W. Mackay’s The Progress of the Intellect in The Westminster Review (January 1851), she decided to settle in London as a freelance writer”(Haight). After living in London for around a year, Evans met George Henry Lewes, the most versatile of Victorian journalists. Although he could not legally be married since he already was, the two moved to Germany together in 1854 and lived happily together until his death in …show more content…
In 1856, she began Scenes of Clerical Life, stories about the people of her native Warwickshire. These stories were published in Blackwood's Magazine. She wrote her first novel, Adam Bede, in 1859 and it was a great success. She used a male pen name, George Eliot, to ensure her works would be taken seriously in an era when female authors were usually associated with romantic novels. The other novels she wrote include The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1863), Middlemarch (1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). The popularity of Eliot's novels brought social acceptance, and Lewes and Evan’s home became a meeting place for writers and intellectuals (BBC). Shortly after Lewes died, Evans met John Walter Cross, whose mother had just died. The two were married in May of 1880, her being twenty-one years older, and she died in her country house in December of that