George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans Cross 1819-80 ) received an ordinary
education and, upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, embarked
on a program of independent study to further her intellectual
growth. In 1841, she moved to Coventry with her father, where the
influence of "Skeptics and rationalists" swayed her from an intense
religious devotion to an eventual break with the church. Her
father's death in 1849 left her with a samll legacy and hte freedom
to pursue her literary inclinations. In 1851, she became the
assistatn editor of th Westminster Review, a position she held for
three years. In 1854 came the fated meeting with George Henry
Lewes, the gifted editor of The Leader, who was to become her
adviser and companion fo rthe next twenty-four years. Her books
include Scenes of Clerical Life(1857), Adam Bede(1859), The Mill on
the Floss (1860), Silas Marner(1861), and Middlemarch
(1871-1872).
Frederick R. Karl, Professor of English at New York University,
wrote major biographies of writers including Franz Kafka-
Representative Man and George Eliot- Voice of a Century. He was the
editor of the Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad and the author of
Art into Life- The Craft of Literary Biography.
Kathryn Hughes, a historian and critic, was educated at Oxford
University and holds a PhD in Victorian History. Her biography of
George Eliot won the James Tait Black Prize and her most recent
book, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, was made into a
feature film by the BBC. She is a critic on the Guardian newspaper
and Visiting Professor at the University of Kingston.
"I think Silas Marner holds a higher place than any of the author's works. It is more nearly a masterpiece; it has more of that simple, rounded, consummate aspect. . .which marks a classical work."—Henry James
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