oii_image_credit
George Eliot
-
Standard Name: Eliot, George
Birth Name: Mary Anne Evans
Nickname: Polly
Nickname: Pollian
Self-constructed Name: Mary Ann Evans
Self-constructed Name: Marian Evans
Self-constructed Name: Marian Evans Lewes
Pseudonym: George Eliot
Pseudonym: Felix Holt
Married Name: Mary Anne Cross
GE
, one of the major novelists of the nineteenth century and a leading practitioner of fictional realism, was a professional woman of letters who also worked as an editor and journalist, and left a substantial body of essays, reviews, translations on controversial topics, and poetry.
Connections
| Connections | Author name Sort ascending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Author summary | Mary Augusta Ward | Best known for her influential loss-of-faith novel Robert Elsmere, MAW
was among the more prolific and popular novelists of the later Victorian and Edwardian periods. Her fifty-year career spanned an era of enormous transformation... |
| Reception | Mary Augusta Ward | |
| Intertextuality and Influence | Mary Augusta Ward | The contemporary story features a self-educated working-class intellectual and freethinker whose characterisation draws on many strands of thought of the day. Drawn after the model of self-made men such as Daniel Macmillan
, William Lovett |
| Literary responses | Mary Augusta Ward | MAW
's friend Benjamin Jowett
praised David Grieve as the best novel since George Eliot
.Walter Pater
also approved, but critics were not enthusiastic. Colby, Vineta. The Singular Anomaly: Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century. New York University Press. 150 |
| Literary responses | Mary Augusta Ward | Reviews were positive. Novelist Margaret Woods
felt that the archaic world it depicted was the root of Marcella's charm. Watters, Tamie, and Mary Augusta Ward. “Introduction”. Marcella, Virago, p. vii - xvi. xvi |
| Textual Production | Michelene Wandor | MW
has specialized in adapting and abridging novels for radio. Between 1980 and 2004 she adapted a wide array of fiction by women writers, including works by Jane Austen
, Charlotte Brontë
, George Eliot |
| Literary responses | Michelene Wandor | The assessment by Nigella Lawson
in the Times Literary Supplement was astonishingly harsh. She argued that the domestic dramatic monologue form used here demands sureness, control and verbal dexterity which MW
did not possess. Lawson, Nigella. “Collusion and Intrusion”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 4324, p. 162. 162 |
| Reception | Lucy Walford | LW
's commentary suggest she was superficial in her judgements, anchoring her opinions time and again on appearance. A prominent example comes in her assessment of George Eliot
, with whom she was invited to... |
| Reception | Lucy Walford | |
| Friends, Associates | Linda Villari | LV
and her husband were both friends of Vernon Lee
, accepting her hospitality and moving in the same circles. Gunn, Peter. Vernon Lee: Violet Paget, 1856-1935. Oxford University Press. 96 |
| Leisure and Society | Queen Victoria | Among her favourite writers were Alfred Tennyson
, Sir Walter Scott
, George Eliot
(whose The Mill on the Floss made a deep impression Victoria, Queen. Queen Victoria in Her Letters and Journals. Editor Hibbert, Christopher, Penguin. 116 |
| politics | Queen Victoria | Most Victorian women writers commented in some way on the Queen's role. Christina Rossetti
engaged with it positively in Our Widowed Queen, while George Eliot
's narrator in Felix Holt, the Radical refers to... |
| Literary responses | Queen Victoria | Despite her book's popularity, when Victoria entered the arena of public writing, some Victorians criticized her prose style. After receiving copies of Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, sent by... |
| Textual Production | Sophie Veitch | For five years she continued to publish articles, mainly reviews of fiction, for The Scottish Review. Her Echoes of the Eighteenth Century appeared in January 1885, George Eliot in April 1885, Current Fiction in... |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | Sophie Veitch | Religious Novels and the Christian Ideal laments that religious novels so seldom put forward truly admirable patterns of life, but instead encourage phariseeism and self-satisfaction. SV
dissects with some disgust Ministering Children by Maria Louisa Charlesworth |
Timeline
December 1855: Barbara Leigh Smith, later Bodichon, founded...
National or international item
December 1855
Barbara Leigh Smith
, later Bodichon, founded the Married Women's Property Committee
(sometimes called the Women's Committee) to draw up a petition for a married women's property bill.
By December 1855: George Meredith published his first work...
Writing climate item
By December 1855
George Meredith
published his first work of fiction, The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment.
14 March 1856: A petition for Reform of the Married Women's...
National or international item
14 March 1856
A petitionfor Reform of the Married Women's Property Law, organized by the Married Women's Property Committee
and signed by many prominent women, was presented to both Houses of Parliament.
By 2 August 1856: Jane Margaret Strickland published a novel,...
Women writers item
By 2 August 1856
Jane Margaret Strickland
published a novel, Adonijah, a tale of the Jewish Dispersion; it was shortly attacked by George Eliot
in Silly Novels by Lady Novelists as one of the deplorable types of fiction...
1858: Rachel Felix, the celebrated tragic actress,...
Building item
1858
Rachel Felix
, the celebrated tragic actress, died of pulmonary consumption.
February 1858: Bessie Rayner Parkes described to George...
Building item
February 1858
Bessie Rayner Parkes
described to George Eliot
, in a letter, the limited company established by the Langham Place group to support The English Woman's Journal.
1861: A company in Salem, Massachusetts, issued...
Writing climate item
1861
A company in Salem, Massachusetts, issued what seems to be the earliest version of a game called Authors, whose object was to collect sets of cards bearing the names of writers and the...
By 25 October 1862: Victor Hugo completed the publication in...
Writing climate item
By 25 October 1862
Victor Hugo
completed the publication in successive parts of his novelLes Misérables.
October 1864: The Working Women's College opened in Queen...
Building item
October 1864
The Working Women's College
opened in Queen Street, London.
7 February 1865: The first issue appeared of George Smith's...
Writing climate item
7 February 1865
The first issue appeared of George Smith
's innovative evening newspaper, The Pall Mall Gazette.
1871-1872: A civil trial against the Tichborne estate...
Building item
1871-1872
A civil trial against the Tichborne estate trustees was brought to court and was eventually lost by the Tichborne Claimant who alleged that he was heir to the Tichborne estate in Hampshire.
January 1873: Jane Elizabeth Senior was appointed as a...
Building item
January 1873
Jane Elizabeth Senior
was appointed as a (temporary) government inspector of pauper schools and workhouses: the first woman to hold this office.
July 1875: Hercegovina (at this date part of Bosnia),...
National or international item
July 1875
Hercegovina (at this date part of Bosnia), rebelled against rule by Turkey; in 1876 Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro also rose.
October 1877: Charles Kegan Paul arranged to purchase the...
Writing climate item
October 1877
Charles Kegan Paul
arranged to purchase the publishing firm of his employer H. S. King
to form Kegan Paul and Co.
1878: The first telephone company in the UK began...
National or international item
1878
The first telephone company in the UK began operations, at Chislehurst, Kent; it enabled private communication by phone between two points only.
Texts
Strauss, David Friedrich. The Life of Jesus. Translator Eliot, George, Chapman Brothers, 1846.
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss. W. Blackwood, 1860.
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss. Editor Haight, Gordon S., Clarendon, 1980.
Eliot, George, and W. B. Rands. The Poems of George Eliot. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1884.
Eliot, George. The Spanish Gypsy. W. Blackwood, 1868.