George Eliot was born Mary Ann or Marian Evans in 1819 in Arbury, Warwickshire, England. Her father was a builder and carpenter who became in later years a highly respected land agent. She had an older sister and brother. Her mother died when she was 5 years old.
Her father was strongly religious and believed that in working hard, one glorified God. Marian’s early upbringing in this strict, evangelical Protestant home had an impact on her writing career.
As a child, she was educated locally, but was very widely read. She enjoyed her educational experiences, particularly the literature and literary thinking she was exposed to at the time. She was close to her brother until he was sent off to school, but the family had many close friends and she was rarely alone.
As many children do, she went though a period of rebellion about organized religion. She rejected aspects of the teaching of various Churches, although she embraced the concept of God and was a believer. At one point she was reported to comment that she would be glad to get to heaven because the Bible wouldn’t be there.
Nonetheless, her first publication in 1846 was a translation from German entitled “The Life of Christ”. She and her father had moved to Coventry in 1838, where they became close friends with a family named Bray, almost to the point where she was considered part of the family.
When her father died in 1848, she became even closer to the Brays, and traveled with them to Europe in 1850 and 1851. She had continued her love affair with literature and writing during this time and, due to the influence of the Bray family, became sub-editor of the “Westminster Review” in 1851.
Through this assignment, she came to know most of the brightest lights of British literature of the time. They encouraged her in her own writing. A particular friend was G.H. Lewes. Lewes himself was a writer and critic and had been on the stage as well. He was broadly connected.
Overtime, her relationship with Lewes broadened and deepened. Lewes was married with two children but was estranged from his wife. Divorce in those times was out of the question. Marian came to regard Lewes as her husband and their “marriage” was widely seen as happy and fruitful for both.
Marian suffered from depression and recurring feelings of not being worthy. Lewes continually encouraged her and helped her. Her later feelings were that, without him, she may never have written a word.
When she began to write “Sketches of Clerical Life” in 1856, it was Lewes who chose the pseudonym George Eliot. While this work was not well received commercially, it received much critical praise form other prominent writers of the time, like Dickens and Thackeray.
Encouraged by Lewes and by her other literary friends, Marian proceeded with her writing. She published “Adam Bede” in 1859 and afterwards, Dickens took to calling her Adam Bede as a reflection of the esteem he had for her and the book. “The Mill on the Floss” in 1860 and “Silas Marner” in 1861 followed. All were reflections on provincial life at the time. People she knew and had known were reflected in characters in the books.
She and Lewes traveled to Italy in 1860 and again in 1861. These inspired her to write the romance novel “Romola” which was the story of Savoranola. This began a highly prolific period in her writing life.
Over the next 8 years, she wrote six novels including what many consider her masterpiece “Middlemarch” written in 1871 and 1872. She also published countless articles and was very highly respected by her peers.
Lewes died rather suddenly in 1878. This had a profound effect on Marian’s life and health. She retreated even more closely into the body of friends she had accumulated over the years, particularly the Cross family, with whom both she and Lewes had become very close. As time passed, she began to heal emotionally, although her physical health remained somewhat poor.
In April of 1880, she married John W. Cross, also a close friend of Lewes. They traveled a bit for her health, but it did not improve and she died in December 1880. She had mostly written about life in small town. Her early rebellion against organized religion was reflected in her writing, particularly in her concern with the responsibility people assume for their own lives and the moral choices always in front of them.
