Mary Anne Evans was born on 22 November 1819 at South Farm, Arbury Hall
near Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Her parents were Robert Evans, the manager
of Arbury Hall, and Christina Evans. She had four siblings: Robert,
Fanny, Chrissy and Isaac. Mary was always considered a serious child
and she always had free access to books. She soon became a great
literature admirer. She had a special fall for Greek Literature and she
would include many elements of Greek tragedy on her books. She also had
a strong influence of social issues and religion. This latter was
probably due to the Baptist education she would receive later.
Mary Anne attended Miss Latham's boarding school and then (in 1828)
Mrs. Wallington's Boarding School at Nuneaton. At this second school
she met Maria Lewis who was the governess of the school and had strong
evangelical believes. Mary Anne then moved to Miss Franklin's school at
Coventry. At this third school she developed her knowledge in
literature and also studied French and the piano.
When her mother died in 1838 Mary had to leave school and come back to
her father, but she never gave up studying. Her father bought her books
and paid private tutor for her. She had Italian and German lessons too.
Some time after, Mary and her father moved to Foleshill where she later
met many intellectuals and thinkers and these people may have had
strong influence on her later work. She stopped going to the church,
what made the relation with her father and close friendship with Maria
Lewis unstable. In 1844 she begun working on the translation of "Das
Leben Jusu" written in German by theologian David Strauss (1808 -
1874).
When her father died she traveled with the Brays (her friends) to
Switzerland in order to refresh her mind. In 1850 she moved to London
and then became friend of John Chapman, a publisher and bookseller. In
1851 Chapman bought "Westminister Reviwe" and hired Mary Anne, who was
then calling herself Marian Evans, as the editor. With Mary, the
journal became a success.
Marian then met George Lewes and they became close friends. George's
marriage to Agnes Jervis had been over and he and Mary started dating
and. In 1854 they started living together, but George was still legally
married to Agnes. This had a very negative impact onto the London
society and many people stopped talking to the couple.
In 1856 she published "Scenes of Clerical Life" under the male name of
George Eliot - because she believed it would make her job more
respected. In 1859 another work came out, "Adam Bede", a great success.
When "The Mill of the Floss", was published, the real identity of
George Eliot was not a secret anymore, but the book was successful.
She published other successful books later: "Silas Marner" (1861) and
"Romola"(1863). It took her three more years until "Felix Holt, the
Radical" came out. After the serious publication of "Middelmarch"(1871
1872), she became even more famous and rich. Unfortunately her healthwas failing due to kidney stones and her pain was enormous. Her last
novel, "Daniel Derona", was published in 1876.
George Lewes died in 1878 and Mary Anne became alone. In 1880 she
married John Cross, a close friend she and George had. However, seven
months after their marriage, Mary Anne died.
