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George Eliot – Mary Ann Evans detailed biography

Mary Ann Evans was an English novelist with a pen name George Eliot. She was the very important writers of the European fiction. “Middlemarch” is a masterpiece which she is known for is just only a major social record but also an also one of the greatest novels in the history of fiction.

The Youth of Mary Ann / George Eliot

She was born November 22, 1819, in Warwickshire, England, to a father, Robert Evans who was an estate agent and Christiana Pearson. She lived in a comfortable home and also she was the youngest of three children. At the age of five, she along with her sister was sent to boarding school at Attleborough, Warwickshire.

George Eliot

When she was nine years old, she was transferred to a boarding school at Nuneaton. It was during these years that she spent in boarding, she was able to realize her passion for reading. She went to school in Coventry when she was nineteen years old. Her education was conservative in all ways as it was dominated by Christian teachings.

Works of Mary Ann Evans

At the age of sixteen, she completed her schooling. When she was in her twenties, she met with people who had an entirely thinking that the most people have and thus Mary Ann Evans underwent an extreme change of her beliefs. She was then influenced by a largely German school, Higher Criticism where Bible.

Mary Ann Evans devoted her time to translate these works into English from the German language for the sake of the English public. In 1846, Mary Ann Evans published her translation of “Life of Jesus” by David Strauss and in 1854, her translation of “Essence of Christianity” by Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach.

Mary Ann Evans became an editor of the Westminster Review, in 1851. She was not only a sensible but also an open-minded journal.  During her journey as an editor, she met with a group who are called as the positivists and they were followers of the doctrines of the Auguste Comte, a French follower. He used to apply the scientific knowledge to the problems of society.

The Journey of Becoming George Eliot

After turning her powerful mind to creative work from scholarly and critical writing, she published “Amos Barton” in 1857 which is a short story. And then in order to prevent discrimination, Mary Ann Evans took the pen name “George Eliot”. She was able to publish her first novel, Adam Bede in 1859 after collecting her short stories in “Scenes of Clerical Life”.

“The Mill on the Floss”, another novel that was published in 1860 shows the stronger traces of her young age in England. Her best-known work which is used as a school textbook is “Silas Marner (1861)”. The story is about a man who lost his faith in his other people after being experiencing solitude for a long time. But he regains it after he met a child who he eventually adopts.

Middlemarch- Masterpiece by Mary Ann Evans

During 1871 and 1872, she published her masterpiece, “Middlemarch” which is a broad understanding of human life. The tale is about girl’s understanding of life and it was the main strand of the tale. The plot is complex too. The social setting makes “Middlemarch” a major account of society at that time and also a work of art.

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