George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans who was born on 22 November 1819 in provincial England. She was also known as Mary Anne or Marian. She is the famous author of several popular works such as Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Eliot was a poet, novelist, journalist and a translator with psychological insight and realism as her primary strengths. Her works magnificently explore the beauty and value of the countryside.

Though Eliot was an intelligent girl and a voracious reader she lacked physical beauty. Thus her father thought it wise to invest in her education which was not the norm for women belonging to that era. Eliot studied at Miss Latham’s school in Attleborough, Mrs. Wallington’s school in Nuneaton, and Miss Franklin’s school in Coventry. At Miss Franklin’s school, Eliot came across a disciplined belief opposed to evangelicalism and was influenced by it later in life. She was brought up within a low church Anglican family.

Eliot’s novels were primarily inspired by Greek tragedy and religion. She chose to publish under her pen name to be recognized as a serious writer and for her fiction to be consumed and judged independent of her already published and famous work as an editor, translator and critic. During her time, the prevalent societal belief was that the writing of women authors was limited to light-hearted romances and not to be taken very seriously. Eliot also wanted to shield her private life from public scrutiny and avoid her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes from becoming a scandal. Evans began to refer to Lewes as her husband after their trip to Germany and legally changed her name to Mary Ann Evans Lewes after his death.

Thomas Carlyle was Eliot’s favourite author, and it was his work that sparked Eliot’s interest in German thought. This interest encouraged her to turn from Christian orthodoxy, and prompted her to write her first complete novel, Adam Bede, in 1859, inspired by Dutch visual art and focusing on duty, realistic aesthetic, sympathy and evolution of the self. Adam Bede was an instant success and raised curiosity regarding the author’s identity leading to Marian Evans Lewes unveiling herself as the real author behind the pen name George Eliot. Queen Victoria herself was an avid reader of all of Eliot’s novels. Her fascination with Adam Bede led her to commission the artist Edward Henry Corbould to paint scenes from the book.

For the next fifteen years after the success of Adam Bede, Eliot continued to write popular novels. She published her last novel, Daniel Deronda, in 1876. Soon after in 1878, her partner Lewes died and on 16 May 1880 Eliot married John Walter Cross, a Scottish commissioning agent. This time she changed her name to Mary Ann Cross. The marriage was short-lived as Eliot fell ill with a throat infection, along with suffering from kidney disease, afflicting her for several years. Finally, Eliot died on 22 December 1880 at the age of 61.