Great Britons
Maureen Al-Kishtaini delves into the life of one of Britain’s most celebrated authors on the bicentenary of her birth
Maureen Al-Kishtaini on George Eliot
THIS year on 22 November, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of England’s much-loved and thought-provoking female writers, known to us as George Eliot. The author of Scenes of Clerical Life, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner and Middlemarch lived at a time of great social change, reflected in these novels. She was a complex character, often stepping outside accepted moral boundaries.
Mary Ann Evans (her birth name) was born into a family of artisans, with a father who had extensive knowledge of mines, plantations and agriculture. By 1820 Robert Evans was living at Griff House and working on the Arbury Estate in Warwickshire where he was considered to be a “man to be reckoned with – a man of oak”. Her father’s work ethic was imbibed by Mary Ann from an early age.
Despite many favourable aspects of her childhood, Mary Ann was not always a happy child, possessive in her affections and having violent swings of behaviour. It seems that the all-important relationship with her mother was distant, and by the age of five she was sent to a local boarding school, Miss Latham’s at Attleborough, a village outside Nuneaton. Though this was not unusual for children living in country areas, it was still very young for Mary Ann to be separated from her family.
From 1828 she continued her education in Nuneaton, at a school run by a Mrs Wallington. There she became attached to one of the teachers, a Miss Lewis, whose influence caused Mary Ann to adopt Evangelicalism for a time at the tender age of nine.
As the years passed, Mary Ann became increasingly conscious of her appearance. With a large nose and lank hair, she soon realised that she was not endowed with physical attractions. Moreover, as she reached twenty, it was apparent that there were few opportunities for a clever and educated woman.
In 1841, she and her father moved closer to Coventry after her brother married, a big change after the rural surrounds of Griff (her mother had died in 1836). A major influence at that time was a Coventry ribbon manufacturer, Charles Bray, who was keen to improve the lives of his workers and through him she met a number of free thinkers, such as Robert Owen. By anyone’s standards her brainpower was phenomenal, at this time translating Strauss’s The Life of Jesus (15,000 pages) with quotations in Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Gradually, Mary Ann became more ambitious. Translating was insufficient for her wide-ranging interests, so around 1846 she started to write reviews and prose sketches for the Coventry Herald – one in particular,
Poetry and Prose from the Notebook of an Eccentric, which purported to be the jottings of a middle-aged man. Meanwhile, at home, life was increasingly difficult. Her father became more demanding and unreasonable, driving her to a “kind of madness”. But despite his obdurate behaviour, in his last months he softened, dying in May of that year.
Released from the duties of home, Mary Ann went on a trip to Europe, organised by publisher John
Chapman. Not in the best mental state after her father’s death, she nevertheless found some fulfilment, meeting people with similar interests. It was during this trip that she was to manifest a familiar pattern of behaviour, forming attachments to other women’s husbands!
On return from Europe in 1851, Mary Ann became a lodger at Chapman’s house in London, helping him in his publishing business, editing, proof-reading and suggesting new topics for the Westminster
Review. She was getting her own articles published, too. Within a very short time, the journal became the leading scholarly quarterly with articles covering a wide range of subjects, including sociology, theology, history and philosophy, as well as current affairs.
It was at Jeff’s Bookshop in Piccadilly that she was to meet the man who was to change her life. From most points of view, George Henry Lewes was not the most attractive proposition. He was already married with four sons and there was no question of divorce. However, soon after he and Mary Ann met, he separated from his wife and the two became lovers. It says much about his superb intellect that his major project
at that time was a biography of the German writer, Goethe.
The couple would follow a certain pattern for the rest of their lives: writing and translating in the morning, a walk in the afternoon and visiting friends or reading in the evening. There were many trips to Europe, too. Generally Mary Ann avoided meeting new friends in view of her “irregular position”, which could be humiliating. But work continued, mostly as a reviewer for the Belles Lettres section of the Westminster Review, when over a two-year period, she read and reviewed over 166 books.
The urge to write fiction herself became stronger, and by 1856 she had started on The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, based on her experiences at Griff during her Evangelical years. Blackwood’s Magazine agreed to publish it as one in a series of Scenes of Clerical Life.
It was at this time that she took the pseudonym George Eliot, partly so her work would be taken more seriously if it was believed to have been written by a man and partly to stay out of the public eye and thus avoid malicious attacks. The pseudonym was used to publish all of her fictional work though Mary Ann’s real identity soon became known and she was widely criticised.
By 1858 both Lewes and Mary Ann were busy, he in Munich after the launch of The Life of Goethe and she completing the second volume of
Adam Bede whilst in Dresden. Again Mary Ann utilised family anecdotes as part of the story – in particular, that of her Methodist aunt Elizabeth, who had accompanied a young girl to the gallows to hang for murdering her illegitimate baby. Strong stuff indeed.
When The Mill on the Floss came out in 1860, it became the latest literary sensation. Even Queen Victoria was impressed and recommendations sped all over Europe. With Mary Ann’s increasing success and the couple’s growing affluence, they moved to Holly Lodge in Wimbledon Park Road.
Despite Mary Ann’s success, life did not always run smoothly. Both she and Lewes suffered from ill health and there was always the problem of not being quite accepted in society. But gradually the situation changed.
With the introduction of Sunday “At Homes”, intellectual sessions hosted by Lewes and Mary Ann, they were visited not only by friends but also by highly regarded professionals – poets, scientists and artists. By then, with
Felix Holt back in a Midlands landscape and full of interesting characters, there was widespread praise in the papers. After that, The Spanish Gypsy, though receiving a mixed reception, sold well. However, the best was to come, in the form of her most brilliant novel, Middlemarch.
Outside her professional life, however, was a personal tragedy regarding Lewes’s son, Thornie. In 1869, having fallen ill in South Africa with a spinal disease, he returned, finally dying in Mary Ann’s arms, after which she made a concerted effort to devote more time to family and friends. She was also immersed in sketching the outline for
Middlemarch, not only collecting information about common illnesses such as typhoid and cholera, but anatomy, too. By 1870 the rough outline of Middlemarch had been sketched and the correction of proofs completed in 1872 after which she and Lewes left for Europe.
Middlemarch stands as one of literature’s best-loved novels, with Mary Ann’s local knowledge of landscape and gentry giving it authenticity. By 1879 nearly 30,000 copies had been sold, making a profit of £9,000 – a huge sum in those days.
By 1876, Mary Ann was the country’s greatest living novelist, winning accolades from all sections of society.
But illness could not be kept at bay and in November 1878, Lewes died. His death was kept quiet, only 12 people attended his funeral, but his legacy was enormous, including not only the Goethe biography, but also studies on science and psychology. Mary Ann set up a scholarship giving £5,000 to fund the George Henry Lewes Studentship to support a young physiologist in his research career.
John Cross (the young man who had teamed up with Lewes on a review of Carlyle’s translation of Dante) and Mary Ann became increasingly intimate. In May 1880 they married and travelled to Venice for a short honeymoon. Gossip at the time said Cross jumped from the hotel bedroom window into the Grand Canal where gondoliers fished him out! But the marriage was not to last long. After moving to their new home on December 3, Mary Ann fell ill and died at the age of sixty-one.
Whatever the controversy Mary Ann aroused during her lifetime, her single undeniable attribute was to write novels of depth, realism and passion. These alone will keep her name alive as one of England’s greatest novelists.
A whole host of events are being held to celebrate Eliot’s bicentenary. View the list at georgeeliot2019.com.