George Eliot: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of British Authors), by Hourly History.

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George Eliot: A Life

from Beginning to End

(Biographies of British Authors),

by Hourly History.

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Not as badly written as some of the other volumes of the series, it still leaves a great deal to be desired.

Such as the author having actually read the works of George Eliot, instead of say, popular notes sold for students who'd rather skip reading original works.

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"The novel Adam Bede has several themes. It deals with the difference between inner and outer beauty. This would have been a subject of great interest to Eliot. The minister Dinah is plain on the outside but shows a shining inner beauty. Hetty, who has outer beauty, is ugly on the inside. Her beauty is worn like a mask that hides her true self. Adam sees only her superficial beauty until he recognizes genuine beauty in Dinah.

"The characters in Adam Bede are transformed by love. The love and understanding of the gentle Dinah transform Hetty into someone less selfish. Also, her normally harsh and judgmental aunt, Mrs. Poyser, shows a more understanding side when Hetty is imprisoned.

"Another theme, the consequences of negative behavior, was of obvious interest to Eliot. She’d spent a decade translating religious material, and Adam Bede was her chance to express her own thoughts. The fate of Hetty is clearly the result of her bad choices, even if she is sorry at the end. Her behavior was bad, and she paid the consequences. Adam, who is kind and hardworking, is rewarded with the love of a good woman."

All this is a blinkered review. Reality is, Eliot's Adam Bede is almost a twin of Thomas Hardy's Tess Of The D'Urberville, a moral tale punishing a young woman - but not the guilty man - of the crime.

The crimes for which each is punished are different, and in this, Eliot's is the work where the older and rich male is at least equally if not more guilty than the innocent young girl whose partnership in their joint crime isn't equal, but she pays with her life while he, the more guilty, goes scot-free.

Eliot does not comment on this, the social injustice, except obliquely. Presumably she was aware of it.

But this author is worse, in ignoring this, and labelling Hetty, Eliot's young woman as ugly within, which Eliot does not do.

So this volume, too, reflects the misogyny of Hourly History, common to many of this series, as of its author.

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"Eliot’s choice of a woman working as a Methodist preacher is an interesting one. The book indicates that Dinah continued in her profession after her marriage to Adam and the birth of their children. She gave up preaching only when the Methodist Conference withdrew the right of women to preach, at which point she became a traditional wife and mother. This return to traditionalism shows Eliot’s uncertainty of the actual role of women in society."

No, it shows that Eliot depicted unfairness of society and church in doing this.

It also shows that author of this volume of Hourly History, and the publishers of the series, are fraudulent in claiming Eliot was happy or compliant in this or even ambivalent.

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"Nevertheless, the novel was received with great enthusiasm. Even Queen Victoria was recommending it to her daughters. ... "

Another tidbit not mentioned in the biographies of George Eliot included in collections of her works.

"... The mystery surrounding the author was now reaching a fever pitch, as the name of George Eliot was on everyone’s lips. Soon enough, a man named Joseph Liggins was wrongly identified to be the mysterious author—a claim he himself encouraged. It was this error that forced Eliot out of hiding and prompted her to refute his claim and reveal her true identity.

"The revelation of George Eliot’s true identity brought a sharp light onto her personal life with Lewes. While George Eliot, the writer, was lauded and feted for her professional success, many doors closed for Mary Ann Evans, the woman, because of her unconventional relationship."

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"While all of Eliot’s novels drew on her personal experiences, her next book, The Mill on the Floss, was her most autobiographical work. It was a difficult novel for her to write, as it involved her shattered relationship with her beloved brother Isaac. His total rejection of her was a pain she would carry throughout her life. Although she had written to him that she was now called Mrs. Lewes, it was a title of convenience only. She was still the unmarried Mary Ann Evans. It was a situation Isaac refused to accept, and their painful estrangement would last for 25 years.

"In The Mill on the Floss, Tom and Maggie Tulliver are siblings who enjoyed a carefree childhood very similar to Isaac and Eliot. Tom works hard at his studies and subsequent job. Otherwise, he is utterly without curiosity about life. Maggie, on the other hand, is younger but far ahead of her brother in studies and imagination. While growing up, Tom frequently withheld his affection when Maggie did anything that displeased him. Maggie was only too eager to please her adored older brother.

"The family’s conventionality is emphasized by the three aunts, who offer common bromides throughout the novel, such as the need to obey parents and the need for honesty and cleanliness. It is an ordinary world which Maggie longs to escape. She suffers tremendously from being too ugly and too clever. The adult Maggie causes a scandal by almost eloping with her cousin’s beau. Although she stops herself in time, her reputation is in tatters. No respectable household will tolerate her presence. Her brother Tom, now the head of the family, brutally rejects her. “I wash my hands of you forever.” This is the fictional version of Eliot’s own elopement and social ostracization. In the novel, the siblings have one last meeting; in real life, however, Eliot never saw Isaac again."

Are author and publishers rejecting family values "need to obey parents and the need for honesty and cleanliness", calling them "common bromides"?

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"“Sane people did what their neighbours did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.

"—George Eliot"

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"Most of Eliot’s novels up until this point had been well-received. With each one, she was uncertain about her ability to surpass the previous one, but she had no need to worry. She was on her way to becoming one of England’s most popular writers."

Sensational, perhaps; "well-received" - by critics, perhaps; but "popular", difficult to believe!

Author and publishers play safe in saying, instead, "one of England’s most popular writers" - not saying what that number was, and if it included every single one of the writers popular at the time, in any way, with people who read.

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"Although Middlemarch is technically a romance, it does not have the requisite happy ending. Critics did not necessarily react well to its intellectual tone, which was unexpected of female writers, but times were changing, and Eliot was a part of those changes."

No, that's too simplistic and untrue.

One, Shakespeare had already flouted the "requisite happy ending" tradition for romance, and in the most grand manner possible, through not only Romeo and Juliette but in a far grander manner in Hamlet, where poor Ophelia is spurned and dead for no other reason than her choice of the man.

Two, the central romance in Middlemarch does end in a happy marriage; other two, and several others, do have diverse endings; but the really unsatisfactory part that leaves a reader not merely dissatisfied but livid at lack of reason and logic on part of characters and author, is the silly and stupid behaviour on part of the central character Dorothea, who not only marries a wrong man for wrong reasons to begin with, but throws away the estate for wrong reasons at the end, instead of either handing it over to its rightful owner who happens to be love of her life, or making a trust for medical research and retaining directorship on board so it'd benefit the aspiring doctor she promised. So one ends up blaming her for the unnecessary tragedy and waste of life of the doctor, and of course, blaming George Eliot, who didn't see the flaws in the logic that mars her workin this case of what author here calls her epic.

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"In Victorian times, marriage had rules and expectations. It wasn’t relevant that women be happy. All they had to do was to be proper wives to their husbands, who were in charge. In Middlemarch, Eliot goes against social expectations. She sees an incompatible marriage as a prison sentence, especially for the wife."

Again, not exactly true. Dorothea is attempting sainthood from very beginning and marries a very wrong man for all the wrong reasons, ignoring youth, vigor, and even intellect - she merely lionises an older priest only to discover after marrying him that he and his work are as less than mediocre as his caring for her in any way whatsoever; but she, supposedly intellectual and aspiring, could have discovered all this, by working with him in intellectual endeavour through a longer engagement instead.

On the other hand, Eliot is more equitable, however, than author suggests. Dorothea's misery is largely fuel yo her own wrong choice and overconfidence in it, but that of the doctor married to beautiful Rosamond is a common fate faced by many honest, different, aspiring men who fail to realise that perfect physical beauty need not enclose a good mind or soul, and end up in a miserable marriage and life.

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"In the novel, Middlemarch is a small town in the Midlands. At the center of the story are Dorothea Brooke, Tertius Lydgate, Mary Garth, and Fred Vincy. Dorothea is an orphan living with her guardian and uncle, Mr. Brooke. She is in love with 45-year-old Reverend Edward Casaubon and agrees to marry him. Dorothea, who wants to better herself, is disappointed that her new husband refuses to discuss any of his scientific experiments with her, which had been the basis of her attraction to him. It is not the most auspicious beginning to a marriage. Through Casaubon, she meets his cousin Will Ladislaw, with whom she becomes friends."

There are so many mistakes there, one wonders if author read Middlemarch at all.

One, Dorothea is not in love with Edward Casaubon,but imagines him to be intellectual who would guide and help her own intellectual development.

Two, his work is in classification and categorisation of church related works, documents and treatises, with not a shred of anything scientific about any of it.

Three, naturally there's no question of there being or having been any experiments.

Four, Will Ladislaw and Dorothea are related through her marriage, hence family, but never "friends"; he's aware of his own feelings, and of reality of her marriage, long before she becomes aware of either. But friends they aren't, until perhaps long after they marry.

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"All the marriages in Middlemarch lead to unhappiness and changes. This is contrary to the Victorian vision of marriage, which is depicted as the ultimate joy. Middlemarch also depicts women as having choices when it comes to marriage."

Again, wrong!

Dorothea's own sister has a happy marriage, clearly enough, for what it's worth, with a squire who did prefer Dorothea but reconciled to marriage with the prettier younger sister.

Mary Garth, and for that matter her own parents, are clearly depicted as having very satisfactory marriages, despite differences of temperament in first and intellectual bent in second case. Mary Garth is certainly shown as having another, far superior, choice, but preferring Fred anyway.

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"The book became so popular that Eliot’s exclusion from polite society was now eased, and she was welcomed by many as an important voice in the women’s rights movement. Although Queen Victoria was a huge fan, she was prevented from meeting Eliot because of her living arrangement with Lewes. The queen was still adhering to established conventions but was obviously interested in new ideas."

So it was the queen who wasn't free, whether due to being queen or her husband or both.

Wonder why George Eliot never wrote about her, a queen not free to conduct her own life.

Strictly forbidden to write about royals?

Or never occurred to her?

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"The rules for women in Victorian times were clear. A woman was to be attractive, but not so much as to be overwhelming. She was to take care of her looks without appearing to be vain. She was to be sought after by men but not notice or care about the attention. It was a difficult balance to maintain, but a woman’s success depended on her doing so.

"Eliot would never be a beauty, and her lack of attractive looks undoubtedly affected her actions in life. As the writer George Eliot became all the rage, photos of her were much sought after. But, insecure about her looks, she did not allow the public to see any photographs of her."

All belied by her photographs.

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"“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

"—George Eliot"

That's silly. Bodies don't retain the capabilities past youth, that are abundant in childhood, and some intellectual endeavours too must be begun early. Neither a mountaineer nor a Nobel prize winning physicist can begin that particular career in older age at the beginning.

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"George Eliot, born Mary Ann Evans in the same year as Queen Victoria, was raised during an era where a woman’s role and duties were well-defined. Women were to look pretty and ornamental, submit to the men in their life (either father, brother, or husband), and they must never, never show any intellectual leanings. In her personal life, even Queen Victoria submitted to her prince’s wishes. It’s what women did at that time, and the queen was no exception."

One, the queen may have deferred to her husband in family matters, but in matters of state she had to follow protocol, and the husband was allowed no role whatsoever by the Parliament or cabinet, which meant she had to deal with them personally and one-one-one.

Such counsel as he might offer was only in capacity that in similar circumstances a wife might for a husband, if she knew and was interested as much - except in this case he wasn't allowed officially to fo so.

Two, the queen obviously was and always had been in love with the prince since she met him; he was supposed to comply for sake of duty to family, and propose if it were him she chose instead of his younger brother.

That made the power equation in the marriage favour him ruling her, however gently he chose to do so.

"Not so Mary Ann, who met no one’s standard of beauty, who had affairs, and whose intelligence was the equal of any man’s. Although she failed to attract many men due to her looks, she established herself as one of the leading freethinkers of her age."

Again, that's an impression due to life she led.

But.

She began writing novels when, and because, her man asked her to do so, however flatteringly.

And while she was praised sky high then and has been since, her very limited readership is very telling. Her novels or stories, even her verses, rarely flow, as must those that are an inspired work that makes an author out of someone who cannot help it. George Eliot's work, including storylines and characters, shows painstaking craft, which is an artistic no-no.

There are more serious flaws of logic that cannot be justified, either, and point at the obvious - that she ought to have kept to work she did previously, which was critical work - except, then it was directly competitive, in all likelihood, to her man, who felt threatened. So he directed her away, and she obeyed without a thought.

As for a woman's life, she had none, being kept away from kitchen and childbearing, housekeeping and so on. Which may have been her own choice, but being engrossed only in writing, and that directed by her man, one must question if she had independence of decision making.

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"“There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.”

"—George Elliot"

George Eliot certainly shows a bias and a divided mind through her work about beauty, strangely splitting up the two racist criteria thereof amongst Nordic races - in George Eliot's works, often enough, obvious striking beauty with exquisite blue eyes is of a lesser person, and a higher woman has golden hair, but rarely both together. Middlemarch, Silas Marner and especially George Eliot's work on Savonarola all show this bias. In Daniel Deronda she reverses, and punishes an exquisitely beautiful upper strata but empoverished young woman for no fault of her in other than poverty suddenly brought on and demeaning circumstances she is forced to make a choice amongst, while rewards another woman with love and happiness but retains the social stratification of Jews of Europe seen as separate, at the very least.

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"Mary Ann was indeed considered ugly, a fact which haunted her for most of her life. ... "

Looking at her photographs that grace covers of her works and biographies, one has to wonder who dictated that lie to the author.

One would say she was extraordinarily beautiful, going only by the said photographs.

But if in her times, she was considered ugly by the then English society, including her family and friends, that certainly explains why she was so vulnerable to the one man who took an interest in her at all, that she changed her career at his suggestion, and became a creative writer without any flow crafting painstakingly most of the time, unlike the naturally inspired writers whose works flow so well as to carry the readership with them.

" ... She led an unconventional life but was conventional enough to want to be seen as attractive. Alas, she never was. Instead, she used her incredible intelligence to make her mark in the world by insisting that women had more to offer than a rosy complexion. She championed women’s right to an education and to vote. In an era of strict moral censorship, she lived openly and happily with a married man for 25 years."

Author refrains from mentioning that the two couldn't marry officially only because he didn't wish to drag mother of his children through court for a divorce that was not easy then, but that this couple lived as a married couple in every sense other than a legal certificate.

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"“I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.”

"—George Eliot"

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"Mary Ann Evans was born in Nuneaton, England, to Robert Evans and his second wife, Christiana Pearson, on November 22, 1819. When Mary Ann was an infant, the family moved to Griff House, a house large enough to accommodate the entire family, which, including the children by Robert’s first marriage, consisted of three girls and two boys. It was not a fancy area. Many cottages were shabby, and quarries marred the green calm of the countryside. Stark industrialization was creeping into the lives of the villagers, and hunger was not unknown within the community. Still, Mary Ann was to look back on a simpler England with fondness. This was the type of simple rural life she wrote about as people were confronted with change. Even as a child, her thoughts were leaning toward the revolutionary.

"Her father Robert was a respected estate manager for the landed gentry, but his position was still considered lower class in a class-obsessed society. He was conservative, as was expected of a proper servant to the rich, but he didn’t hesitate to express a need for social justice when it was called for. When a crop failure promised doom for his tenant farmers, for example, he demanded that the owners lower the rents."

It's interesting that while her work makes one wonder if her family consisted of priests, it's not so; while Jane Austen whose works are so lively and so far from the constant religious, ethical and moral discourses, dilemmas and discussions (that George Eliot's works are choc-a-bloc with), actually had not only more than one brother but her father too a priest of church.

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"All of Robert’s children were sent to boarding school. At the mere age of five, Mary Ann was enrolled in Miss Latham’s school located in Attleborough. Four years later, she was sent to Mrs. Wallington’s school in Nuneaton. Rare for the times, her father valued education even for his daughters. This was a time when people could advance themselves through their own efforts, and that was what Robert wanted for his children.

"Mary Ann was a plain girl and well aware of her lack of looks. At Wallington’s, she even won a prize for an essay denouncing vanity. Taking a defensive stance, she claimed she didn’t yearn for beauty; instead, she condemned those who relied on good looks. In truth, however, she would desire good looks her entire life."

Well, if man in her life failed to inform her thereof, it was criminal on his part - and doubly so, since she's evidently beautiful in her photographs.

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"Mary Ann developed a love of reading early and did very well in school. One of her teachers at Wallington’s was an Evangelical, and Mary Ann developed a love of the church’s rituals, even though her family was strict Protestants. A tolerance of different religious beliefs was to figure into most of her novels."

Not so true, judging by her opinions regarding any cultures outside the abrahmic creeds family.

"After a stay at Misses Franklin’s school in Coventry, Mary Ann’s formal education ended at the age of 16, at which time she returned home. Her mother’s health was failing, and Mary Ann’s sister, Chrissey, took over as housekeeper with Mary Ann’s help. Their brother, Isaac, meanwhile worked as an assistant to their father. After their mother died in 1836 and Chrissey married in 1837, Mary Ann became the mistress of the house.

"By 1840, a library opened in the village, and Mary Ann was introduced to a wide array of reading material and vaguely toyed with the idea of becoming a writer. Still, it was not a burning passion at the time. Her brother became engaged, and Mary Ann lamented to a friend that she would likely never find love for herself. She wasn’t attractive enough to interest men, and this belief encouraged her to think about seeking an occupation, something most women of her era did not consider. Her ideas on marriage were contradictory; the yearning for love made her feel guilty, but seeing Chrissey struggle financially with her own growing brood made her question the whole idea."

One can understand the latter part, but has yo wonde if her superior intellect (not mentioned by this author) was why men were put off, and she was given the impression she was not beautiful enough.

This dishonesty does prevail in West.

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" ... Her letters at the time show a growing disillusion and rejection of the Church of England, which made her feel quite isolated. Secretly, she began a concise historical study of the Bible. Hesitantly, she confessed in a letter that she might be clinging to “wrong ideas.”

"As Mary Ann continued to discuss her religious doubts in correspondence with her friends, they became concerned. According to her friend Martha Jackson, there was serious concern among her friends that she should “stray away into the dark regions of infidelity.” Mary Ann was afraid of alienating her few friends but was more concerned about ideas than companionship. She would soon make new friends who shared her own thinking.

"If Mary Ann was on a quest for truth, it was through continuous learning. She could quote Shakespeare and Byron with ease, and her father hired a tutor to improve her German and Italian."

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"Around this time, Mary Ann met an outspoken atheist couple, Charles and Cara Bray, and through them, was introduced to other free thinkers of her time, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Her circle of radical thinkers kept widening. Her father, however, who expected his daughter to behave in a respectable manner, was beside himself and threatened to have her removed from the home. Isaac remained on Mary Ann’s side—not because he agreed with her (he certainly did not), but he hoped she might soon marry and rejoin respectable society. Isaac was to be sorely disappointed. There was no beau in sight for Mary Ann.

"Instead, she began translating the German theologian David Strauss’s work into English. Strauss had written a treatise questioning and examining each of the Gospel stories, and Mary Ann was very interested in his work. She also translated Spinoza from its original Latin. Wealthy radicals in her group paid her for her work, and John Chapman, the editor of the radical journal the Westminster Review, published her translations. Being published did much to boost Mary Ann’s confidence. In an era when young ladies’ main concern was what proper gloves to wear, Mary Ann stood out. She referred to herself as the female Diogenes and a seeker of truth. She would continue that search for the rest of her life."

"During this time, Mary Ann met Ralph Waldo Emerson at the Brays’ home. They discussed the controversial writer George Sand, who was well-known for her advocacy of the type of open marriage that the Brays had. These ideas were to figure strongly in her life within a few more years. They were certainly unusual and radical ideas, especially for a young woman, during the conservative Victorian times."

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"“It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.”

"—George Eliot"

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"It was the Brays who suggested that she continue to spend some time in Switzerland after they returned home. Mary Ann agreed and rented a room in a small pension in the city of Geneva. Geneva was a haven for the Protestant Huguenots who had been driven out of France. These Huguenots lived under a rigid system of morality where almost everything was forbidden. Mary Ann soon discovered that a young, single woman simply could not be on her own. She’d been aware of the restrictions, of course, but as she told the Brays before their departure, she assumed that someone with her lack of good looks would be ignored. She was wrong. Staying at the pension on her own proved impossible.

"After a few weeks, Mary Ann found lodgings with the respectable artist Francois d’Albert Durade and his wife, from whom she rented an attic apartment for six pounds a month. Durade even painted a portrait of Mary Ann during this time. Apart from that, she spent much of her time reading Voltaire, who had lived in Geneva a few years earlier and whose rebellious ideas quite aligned with her own. She also translated a few works by Spinoza and attended lectures at the local university on experimental physics. These were considered strange and unfeminine activities for a woman."

" ... John Chapman, her London publisher who had published her previous translations and now owned the radical Westminster Review, asked her to review The Progress of the Intellect by R. W. MacKay.

"The decision to move to London was an easy one. John Chapman’s wife ran a respectable boarding house above his publishing company; it advertised itself as having all the amenities of a first-rate hotel with all the comforts of a private home. It was centrally located, a great plus in a year when Prince Albert was working on the construction plans for his Crystal Palace exhibit, a spectacular wonder that drew visitors from all over the world.

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"However, London wasn’t all royal splendor. Within walking distance, one encountered the London of Charles Dickens, with decaying houses and widespread hunger, beggars, and prostitutes. There was no proper sewage system. The juxtaposition of extreme wealth and abject poverty was to rouse the social justice warrior in Mary Ann."

"For the time being, Mary Ann enjoyed the freedom and excitement that was London. Her reputation as a female intellectual preceded her, and she was making new friends, who considered her “intelligent but dowdy.” In 1851, Chapman even made her assistant editor of the Westminster Review. After a few months, however, Mary Ann escaped back to the Bray household. It seems that John Chapman was now incurring the wrath of both his wife and his mistress due to the attention he was giving Mary Ann. He spent a lot of time in her room, listening to her playing the piano. Mary Ann, who was not accustomed to male attention, enjoyed his attentiveness. Letters from Chapman indicate they may have had an affair, making this a very busy household indeed."

That last is a tidbit not mentioned in most biographies of George Eliot included in collections of her works.

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"Despite the uncomfortable situation, Mary Ann and Chapman continued to correspond. He was publishing her essays and translations, and she continued her position as assistant editor of the Westminster Review. Still, it was difficult for her to do her work so far from London. Chapman eventually overruled his wife and mistress and had Mary Ann return to his boarding house.

"Back in London, Mary Ann especially enjoyed the company of Herbert Spencer, the philosopher whose progressive ideas even embraced the vote for women. Through Spencer, Mary Ann met his friend, George Henry Lewes, also a contributor to the Westminster Review. Lewes was unhappy in his marriage, as his wife had just given birth to her second son by her lover, Thornton Hunt. Lewes and his wife also had three sons of their own.

"To celebrate Mary Ann’s 32nd birthday, Spencer invited her and Chapman to the theater for a performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Lewes shared their box. It was an enjoyable evening for Mary Ann, who was surrounded by three interesting and handsome men. She would cherish the memory of that occasion for the rest of her life."

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" ... she met Bessie Rayner Parkes, an early suffragette and journalist who had received a very progressive education thanks to her father.

"Parkes and her feminist friend Barbara Leigh Smith were especially eager to change the laws limiting the rights of married women to own property. At the time, anything a woman owned automatically became the property of her husband when she married. In addition, Parkes campaigned against the idea that upper-class women suffered a loss of status if they engaged in any type of occupation or work outside of the home, which was for lower-class women only. Any upper-class lady engaged in productive work was immediately scorned. In Parkes and Smith, Mary Ann would have found kindred souls.

"In letters, Mary Ann claimed not to be interested in marriage, but in reality, she very much yearned for love. Spencer, who greatly admired her intellect, frequently sought out her company. They were often seen at concerts and walking in the park. Everyone whispered that these two must be in love. Mary Ann was certainly smitten. She made her feelings quite obvious to him. When she wrote to the Brays about her romance, they invited both Mary Ann and Spencer for dinner as a way to smooth the path to true love.

"Spencer, however, was not interested. He loved Mary Ann’s vibrant intelligence, nothing more. He did not appreciate her as a woman and eventually found her continued pursuit of him embarrassing. This was the most important romantic relationship Mary Ann had ever had, and she wasn’t about to give it up quietly. She repeatedly wrote him love letters in her quest to win him over. When he finally made his lack of interest clear, she wrote to him, “I want to know if you can assure me that you will not forsake me and always be with me as much as you can and share your thoughts and feelings with me. If you become attached to someone else, then I must die.”"

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"In London, she looked for new lodgings. Living in the Chapman’s boarding house while she was getting closer to Lewes made her uncomfortable. She eventually found suitable rooms near Hyde Park. Wishing to concentrate more on her translations, she also resigned as editor of the Westminster Review.

"By the time Mary Ann returned to London, Lewes had left his home and wife and was living on his own. He was known for his brilliance as well as for his frequent rudeness. Fluent in several languages, Lewes had been an actor, then a novelist and a dramatist before concentrating on non-fiction and philosophical ideas. As he was flippant by nature, Mary Ann’s seriousness held great appeal for him."

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"In Weimar, she and Lewes attended a concert by Franz Liszt. While she loved his music, he provided her with encouragement in another area of her life. Liszt was at the time openly living with Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who was still married to her husband. Enthusiastically, Mary Ann wrote to the Brays that “Liszt lives with a Russian princess, who is in fact his wife, and he is a Grand Seigneur in this place.” The court at Weimar accepted the relationship, just as it accepted the relationship between Mary Ann and Lewes. Not so back in England, where their friends made quite a disapproving fuss.

"Sara Hennell, after the exchange of a few letters, eventually accepted the situation and vowed to continue to be Mary Ann’s friend. Cara Bray, however, simply stopped writing. Her own husband was enjoying a relationship with their governess, and Cara undoubtedly felt left out and not overly enthusiastic about cheating husbands. While she considered sexual dalliances acceptable for men, she utterly refused to accept them for women, although she herself probably had at least one affair. Eventually though, Cara and Mary Ann would reconcile.

"Mary Ann’s friend Barbara Leigh Smith, who was living openly with Chapman at the time, also voiced her strong disapproval. She wasn’t against unmarried people living together. As a champion of sexual freedom for women, she was absolutely in favor of such an arrangement. It was Lewes’ careless behavior that she refused to trust.

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"Upon their return to England, Lewes found himself regarded as a roué and cad, but he was never ostracized from society. His behavior made him appear more manly and interesting to many people. Even in Victorian England, cads and roués were given a certain amount of leeway. Ladies, however, were expected to obey the rules.

"While Mary Ann had previously enjoyed an active social life, frequently visiting the theater and concerts, she was no longer welcomed at these functions. Their friends would invite Lewes to dinner, but such an invitation would not be extended to her. Bitterly, she wrote that she would no longer have friends, only acquaintances. Upon learning of her living arrangement, her brother Isaac broke off all contact with her. It would take years for Mary Ann to be able to comfortably attend a dinner party.

"Despite the gossip they created, Lewes and Mary Ann remained together in a close relationship for 24 years. Mary Ann considered herself married and referred to him as “my husband.” Additionally, Lewes played a critical role in her writing career by managing her contracts and schedule. Some critics believe that without Lewes, Mary Ann might never have begun to write. She dedicated each of her works of fiction to him. He encouraged her to write, and with his support, she ended up publishing her first fictional short story, “The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton,” in 1857.

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"It was also Lewes’ idea for Mary Ann to adopt a pen name, and she promptly chose George Eliot (George was Lewes’ forename and Eliot was, according to her, “a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word”). She would not have been successful as an author had she been known as someone’s mistress, so keeping her identity a secret had plenty of practical and financial value. Until the publication of Adam Bede in 1859, even their closest friends did not know the identity of the mysterious George Eliot."

"During the first few years, the only outsider who knew her George Eliot identity was her old friend Herbert Spencer, whom she had pursued so ardently. He had discussed writing fiction with her on previous occasions. When they met, she admitted to him that she had already taken the first steps in that direction as George Eliot. She swore him to secrecy."

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"The book of short stories was successful, and the publisher, William Blackwood, was curious as to the identity of the mysterious George Eliot. Lewes explained that George Eliot was too shy to meet people and insisted that the checks from the publisher be deposited in his own account. When Blackwood eventually met Eliot, he was quite understanding of her situation and did what not many high-society men at the time would have done: he brought her home and introduced her to his wife.

"While the critics speculated about the identity of George Eliot, they were full of praise for Scenes of Clerical Life. It was the astute Charles Dickens who first ruminated on the possibility that its author just might be a woman. Even those critical of the selection of stories saw the potential in the author, stating that there is “an obvious awkwardness in the handling of the materials of the Scenes and a tendency . . . to moralize” but that “the emergent novelist is glimpsed in the way in which the three scenes interpenetrate to establish a densely textured, cumulative study of a particular provincial location, its beliefs and customs and way of life.”"