George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)

(1819-80)

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. (The Mill on the Floss, bk. 5, ch. 1)

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? (Middlemarch, bk. 8, ch. 72)

George Eliot Websites

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. (Scenes of Clerical Life ch. 197)

Works (Wikipedia)

Chronology

1819: Mary Ann Fvans born 22 November at Arbury Hall Farm moves to Griff a few months later.
1828: Mrs. Wallington's School; meets Maria Lewis, the principal teacher.
1832: Misses Franklin's School; learning French.
1836: Mother dies, goes home to keep house at Griff for her father.
1838: Undertakes chart of ecclesiastical history.
1840: Learning Italian and German with a tutor; also studying Latin; publishes first creative work, a poem in the Christian Observer.
1841: Moves with father to Bird Grove, Foleshill, a location near Coventry; meets Charles Bray and his wife, Caroline Hennell Bray, on 2 November.
1842: Translating bits of Spinoza for Charles Bray, parts of both the Tractatus theologico-politicus and the Ethics.
1843: Studying Greek.
1844: Begins translating Strauss's Das Lehen Jesu (The Life of Jesus); studying Hebrew.
1846: Strauss translation published.
1849: Translating Spinoza's Tractatus as a calming occupation during her father's last illness; Robert Evans dies in June; Mary Ann travels with Brays to Europe and remains in Geneva for eight months, five of them with the D'Albert Durades.
1851: Reviews Mackay's Progress of the Intellect for Westminster Review; meets Herbert Spencer.
1852: Meets Bessie Parkes and Barbara Leigh-Smith (later Madame Barbara Bodichon); 1 January, publication of the first issue of Westminster Review under her editorship; friendship with Lewes; translating Feuerbach's Das Wesen des Christentums (The Essence of Christianity).
1853: Moves from Chapman's to her own lodgings.
1854: Feuerbach translation published end of June; leaves with George Henry Lewes for Weimar, 20 July; begins translating Spinoza's Ethics, 3 November.
1856: Finishes translating Spinoza's Ethics. 19 February; begins "The Sad Fortunes of Rev. Amos Barton," 23 September.
1857: Scenes of Clerical Life begun in Maga (Blackwoods Magazine) under pseudonym George Eliot; 22 October, begins Adam Bede.
1858: Scenes of Clerical Life published in two volumes by Blackwood.
1859: Adam Bede published by Blackwood in three volumes, 1 February; sister Chrissey dies, 15 March; second edition of Adam Bede in March and a second impression of this edition in April; begins The MilI on the Floss; third edition of Adam Bede in June and a second impression in July, a third in August, a fourth in October.
1860: Italian journey with Lewes in March; Mill on the Floss published by Blackwood in three volumes in April and runs to a third impression by May; begins Silas Marner, 30 September, finishes 10 March 1861.
1861: Silas Marner published by Blackwood in April; begins Romola in October.
1862: Romola begins in Cornhill Magazine in July (runs for fourteen monthly installments).
1863: Romola published in three volumes by Smith, Elder and Co.; Eliot and Lewes buy the Priory, 21 North Bank, Regent's Park.
1864: Starts with Lewes and F. W. Burton for Italy; studies Spanish.
1865: January holiday in Paris; has begun Felix Holt, the Radical by March; excursion in November to Brittany.
1866: Felix Holt published by Blackwood in June; starts with Lewes for Holland, Belgium, and Germany; in December travels to Spain.
1867: With Lewes in Germany.
1868: The Spanish Gypsy published by Blackwood, 25 May; with Lewes in Germany and Switzerland.
1869: Travels with Lewes to Italy in Match; meets John Walter Cross in Rome, April; begins Middlemarch August; Thornton Lewes dies 19 October.
1870: In Germany and Austria with Lewes; experimenting with "Miss Brooke" in December.
1871: Acutely ill for a month; Middlemarch, book 1, published by Blackwood in the first of eight monthly parts ending in December 1872, when it was published in three volumes.
1872: Ill in January; in Germany with Lewes, September and October; ill in December.
1873: Holiday in France and Germany from June through August; studies Jewish subjects; Thornton Hunt dies in June.
1874: Lewes reads opening chapters of Daniel Deronda in June; holiday with Lewes in France and Belgium in October; two excursions in Wiltshire.
1875: Herbert Lewes (Bertie) dies in Natal.
1876: Daniel Deronda, book 1, published by Blackwood, 1 February, in the first of eight monthly parts through September; to France and Switzerland with Lewes, June, July, and August; Daniel Deronda published in four volumes in September; purchases the Heights at Witley with Lewes, December.
1878: Lewes very ill in June, worse in October and November, dies 22 December.
1879: Working on Lewes's Problems of Life and Mind; John Blackwood dies in October.
1880: Marries John Walter Cross in May; trip to Continent; moves to 4 Cheyne Walk, 3 December; dies 22 December.

* This extract is taken from Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth, George Eliot (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985).

George Eliot's Birthplace, South Farm.

Last updated: 29 December 2012.

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