George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) – 19th-century English novelist; Middlemarch, Adam Bede; a giant of Victorian literature. She adopted a male pen name to avoid prejudice. Her fiction combines psychological depth, social critique, and moral insight, influencing modernist writers of the 20th century.
📚 Middlemarch is often ranked among the greatest English novels. 🖋️ Chose the pseudonym “George Eliot” to be taken seriously in literary circles. ❤️ Lived in an unconventional union with philosopher George Lewes, scandalising Victorian society. 📖 Began her career translating German theology, including Strauss and Feuerbach. 🎭 Her novels are praised for dramatic intensity and realistic dialogue. 📜 Influenced Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce. 📰 Edited the Westminster Review literary journal. 🌍 Largely self-educated across disciplines from philosophy to geology. 📔 Often depicted provincial life and tensions between tradition and progress. 🏛️ Buried in Highgate Cemetery near Karl Marx. 🖼️ Also wrote poetry, though it is far less known. 🧐 Curious: was called “Mrs Lewes” in society though never married to him. 😄 Funny: loved charades and devised notoriously difficult riddles.