George Eliot Is Not Her Real Name

One of the interesting facts about George Eliot is that George Eliot is not her real name. The huge Arbury Hall and Estate in Warwickshire, England, which has hundreds of acres of surrounding gardens and farms, is where George Eliot was born. Her father, Robert Evans, was a manager and agent for the estate's proprietors, the Newdigate family. His duties included managing the coal mine on the site and collecting payments from tenant farms.

Female authors were frequently published using their true identities during George Eliot's time. Eliot, though, dared to stand apart. An intriguing tidbit about George Eliot is that she really went by the name Mary Ann Evans. She chose to write under the pen name George Eliot nevertheless because she didn't want to be limited by preconceptions. Eliot chose to adopt a pen name in addition to avoiding writing about women in order to keep her personal life and fiction writing separate. In addition, there were rumors that George Eliot's fame protected him from the media's attention because of his connection with George Henry Lewes, a married man. But whatever her motivation, George Eliot is unquestionably a brilliant writer.