George Eliot
(1819–1880)

In male-dominated Victorian England, where writing was considered to be a profession for men, Mary Ann Evans took the pseudonym George Eliot. As Eliot, she published several major literary works and became known as one of the most important writers of European fiction. She also gained worldwide acclaim for developing a method of psychological analysis that is characteristic of modern fiction.

Evans was born on the estate of her father's employer in Warwickshire, England. In 1851, she became an editor for the Westminster Review. During an era of political unrest and religious radicalism, she came in contact with notable literary figures and the leading intellectuals and of her time.

Her major literary works, published under the name George Eliot, include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), and Middlemarch (1871–1872). Middlemarch, her masterpiece, is not only one of the greatest novels in the history of fiction, but it is also a major social document because it addresses the societal issues that disturbed England in the 1800s. Author Virginia Woolf said of Eliot, "…we must lay upon her grave whatever we have it in our power to bestow of laurel and rose."

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