George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans, was a critically acclaimed Victorian writer known for novels such as The Mill and The Floss and Middlemarch. She used a male pseudonym due to her unconventional relationship with a married man. Her work explores the social strata of rural communities and accurately portrays women’s lives. Despite not being as popular as Dickens in her time, she has influenced modern writers. Eliot died a year after marrying a man 20 years her junior, leaving behind 11 novels.
George Eliot is the pen name of the critically acclaimed Victorian English writer, Mary Ann Evans. Her literary contributions include The Mill and The Floss, Adam Bede, Silas Marner and Middlemarch. She is considered by many to be one of the best authors of the Victorian era, in many cases as good or better than Charlotte Bronte. Her work clearly parallels the work of Dickens, and she was excellent at dealing with the social strata of rural communities.
Many female writers in the Victorian era had stopped using male pseudonyms, as writing became a more respectable craft for women. George Eliot probably used a pseudonym because his personal life would have been considered less than respectable. She would have been regarded in her day as a “kept woman,” as she lived with a married man named George Lewes.
Lewes’ wife refused to divorce him, so he and George Eliot privately pursued their relationship. Keeping this undercover was extremely important; otherwise it probably would not have been read. Some knew of his affair, but he couldn’t quite stop his private life from being discussed. Louisa May Alcott refers to her lifestyle in Little Women, mentioning how Eliot is lost in the true light.
It is clear from the semi-autobiographical Middlemarch, which many consider his finest work, that the decision to pursue an unconventional romantic relationship with Lewes was not an unreasonable or quick one for George Eliot. In this novel, in fact, the character of Dorothea is drawn with caution, highlighting the difficulties of an imprudent marriage from which she cannot escape.
Dorothea is often taken as a model for the young George Eliot. She is quite chaste and values the acquisition of education above all else. Eliot sought knowledge as a young man, learning languages usually reserved for the education of men, such as German and Greek. Though educated on fairly conservative Christian principles, Eliot was soon exposed to a more liberal Christian theology. He certainly used that knowledge to defend his longstanding relationship with Lewes.
Lewes died in 1880 and George Eliot married a friend, John Cross, a man 20 years her junior. She did not survive a year beyond this marriage, dying just after her 61st birthday. In total she has written 11 novels. Her last work was Daniel Deronda, published in 1876.
While George Eliot was read during his time, he didn’t enjoy the popularity of writers like Dickens. She is recognized for her precise character studies and her exploration of life and the limits of rural communities. Later writers such as DH Lawrence and Henry James have seen her as one of the inspirations for Edwardian and modern writers.
Among feminist critics, George Eliot is considered a particularly important writer because her portrayal of women is extremely accurate. In The Mill on The Floss, the impotence and futility of women’s lives are tragically recorded. Although Eliot was able to escape traditional Victorian male control, he clearly saw how most women lived and the power they lacked. However, his character sketches never seem to teach as much lessons as Bronte’s. Instead he allows the reader to draw his own conclusions about the nature and lives of the characters he plays.
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