George Eliot

Mary Ann Evans (November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the most influential Victorian writers. 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 (1871–72) are among her seven works (1876). She, like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, grew up in rural England, and most of her works are set there. Her paintings are noted for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place, and precise depictions of rural life.

Despite the fact that female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, George Eliot sought to break the stigma that women's writing was limited to fluffy romances and less serious fare. She also wanted her writing to be appraised independently of her already well-known work as a translator, editor, and critic. Another reason for her pen name could have been a wish to keep her personal life out of the spotlight, avoiding the controversy that would have resulted from her relationship with married George Henry Lewes.

Middlemarch was called "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" by Virginia Woolf, and "the best work in the English language" by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes.

Nationality: U.K