,

George Eliot


Born
in South Farm, Arbury Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England
November 22, 1819

Died
December 22, 1880

Genre

Influences


Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She was born in 1819 at a farmstead in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, where her father was estate manager. Mary Ann, the youngest child and a favorite of her father's, received a good education for a young woman of her day. Influenced by a favorite governess, she became a religious evangelical as an adolescent.

Her first published work was a religious poem. Through a family friend, she was exposed to Charles Hennell's "An Inquiry into the Origins of Christianity". Unable to believe, she conscientiously gave up religion and stopped attending church. Her father shunned her, sending th
...more

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Quotes by George Eliot  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
George Eliot

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”
George Eliot

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.”
George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such

Polls

January 2018 Old School Poll

 
  57 votes, 16.3%

 
  57 votes, 16.3%

Shirley by Charlotte Brontë 1849, 624 pages
 
  46 votes, 13.2%

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 1855, 624 pages
 
  33 votes, 9.5%

Silas Marner by George Eliot 1861, 262 pages
 
  27 votes, 7.7%

 
  27 votes, 7.7%

 
  27 votes, 7.7%

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev 1862, 244 pages
 
  22 votes, 6.3%

Germinal by Émile Zola 1885, 592 pages
 
  19 votes, 5.4%

 
  13 votes, 3.7%

Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac 1834, 370 pages
 
  12 votes, 3.4%

Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov 1859, 586 pages
 
  9 votes, 2.6%

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Next Best Boo...: Female author recommendations? 65 1284 Feb 20, 2009 11:57AM  
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The Seasonal Read...: FALL CHALLENGE 2009 PLANS 167 1509 Oct 14, 2009 08:10AM  
Victorians!: This topic has been closed to new comments. Possession - Chapters 1-13 129 166 Oct 15, 2009 11:23AM  
The Book Challenge: Meghan's Other 2009 Challenges 11 247 Oct 31, 2009 09:58AM  
The Seasonal Read...: Polls Are Up Go Vote!!! 173 440 Nov 12, 2009 08:11PM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. FALL CHALLENGE 2009 COMPLETED TASKS 3942 2733 Nov 30, 2009 09:01PM  
The Next Best Boo...: Classics... You Want To Read. 119 836 Feb 21, 2010 11:18AM