English literature

George Eliot

Biography

ELIOT (Eliot) George (pseudonym; real name Mary Ann Evans, Evans) (November 22, 1819, Arbury, Warwickshire - December 22, 1880, London), English writer.

Mary Ann (later shortened to Marian) was born in a small rural parish in the heart of England. "George Eliot" is her pseudonym, under which she published her first story, The Woeful Lot of the Reverend Amos Burton (1857), which, with two others, compiled the collection Scenes from the Life of the Clergy (1858), and with which she signed her subsequent works. In her youth, she attended educational institutions for girls and read a lot, making up for the meager diet of knowledge that was released there. She was with her father, caring for him until his death in 1849, then moved to London. In October 1853 she challenged public opinion, when she got along with the scientist and writer J. G. Lewis, who divorced his wife, but could not, according to English law, terminate the marriage with her. The long life together of Marian and Lewis had a beneficial effect on their common destiny: both managed to realize their talent. Lewis wrote a number of studies that earned him a name, and Marian Evans became George Eliot.

The gift of the artist was combined with George Eliot with analytical warehouse mind. She was one of the most educated women of the era, closely followed the development of philosophical, sociological and natural science thought, for many years she edited literary section of the Westminster Review, translated into English language"The Life of Jesus" by D. F. Strauss, "The Essence of Christianity" by Feuerbach and "Ethics" by Spinoza. Human open-minded, she welcomed the French Revolution of 1848, although for England she considered acceptable only the path of gradual reforms. Her worldview could be called radical conservatism.

The life of George Eliot, not rich in bright events, lived in accordance with its inherent heightened consciousness of duty to loved ones and love for order and regularity, was marked by exceptional spiritual and intellectual activity. The authority of the writer was enormous, one might say, indisputable, and in the sphere of both literature and morality. She was looked upon as a mentor, a teacher of life. They called her the Sibyl. Queen Victoria herself was a zealous admirer of her. Prominent writers different generations, from the hardened Turgenev to the young Henry James, visited the Priors House, the London residence of the Lewises, to testify to George Eliot their respect and sympathy.

George Eliot owned seven novels, short stories, essays and poetry. Her work, like that of her contemporary Anthony Trollope, became the link connecting the English social-critical novel of the 1830s-1860s. (Dickens, Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell) and psychological prose turn of the 19th-20th centuries In many ways, the views and creative attitudes of George Eliot were determined by the philosophy of positivism. She, in particular, owes him the importance that she attached to heredity, and the conviction that a person’s actions in his youth influence both his own fate and the fate of those around him. In the stories and novels Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Silas Marner (1861), the writer gravitated towards depicting the ordinary, striving for the utmost accuracy and objectivity of the drawing. Here she was helped by the experience accumulated over thirty years of life in the provinces. And since from her youth she was distinguished by a penetrating mind, a tenacious look and great memory, then her countrymen, reading these books and later written "Middlemarch" (1872), only wondered how Mr. Eliot got such a thorough knowledge of their parish affairs, gossip and everyday stories: they could not help but "recognize" her characters.

Starting with the historical novel Romola (1863), in which Savonarola was introduced, the writer sought to saturate her novels - Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Daniel Deronda (1876) - with philosophical, political and sociological material. But it was precisely “politics” that was the least successful for her, here her manner sometimes became overly informative, if not poster-like. But it was in the last three novels that the skill of the writer manifested itself with the greatest force - the skill of disclosure in writing human personality, individual character in all its multidimensionality, inconsistency and ambiguity. A character molded into the flesh of living, tense, beating and rebellious feelings: “The intensity of passions in Middlemarch permeates not only the plot, but also the image Each chapter has its own trajectory of strong feelings The refinement of the novel lies in George Eliot’s interpretation of feelings as important factor that determines human behavior "(English literary critic Barbara Hardy). "Middlemarch" is not named here by chance: this is the most perfect work of George Eliot - a wide panorama of English life in the first third of the 19th century, an artistic cut of the whole society in miniature, an encyclopedia of the human heart.

Eliot George (1819-1880), English writer. Real name Mary Ann Evans. Born November 22, 1819 in a rural parish on the estate of Arbury, Warwickshire in central England. Received education in educational institution for girls. She spent the first part of her life caring for her father. After the death of his father in 1849, he decides to move to London. In 1853, despite the opinion of the London public, she began to live with the scientist and literary figure J. G. Lewis, who was still married at that time. This union had a beneficial effect on the fate of both. Lewis became widely known for a number of studies he wrote, and Mary Ann became a writer under the pseudonym George Eliot.

The life of the writer was quiet, but intellectually and spiritually rich. George Eliot had great authority in the literary field, was widely known not only in her country, but also in Russia, Queen Victoria herself was among her admirers. The writer's Peru owns seven novels, short stories, essays and poems. Literary activity George Eliot began in the late 50s of the nineteenth century, her first book was Scenes from the Life of the Clergy. Eliot is considered one of the most educated women of that era, for a long time she was the editor of the literary magazine Westminster Review, translating foreign books into English. Her most significant work is Middlemarch. First, in 1871, the first part of it was published, and in 1872 the second part was published. The last novel, entitled Daniel Deronda, appeared in 1876.

After the death of J. G. Lewis in 1878, the writer devoted all her time to publishing his manuscripts. In 1880, George Eliot remarried a family friend, DW Cross. The writer died in London on December 22, 1880.

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George Eliot(Eng. George Eliot; real name Mary Ann Evans, Mary Ann Evans; November 22, 1819 - December 22, 1880, London) - English writer.

In 1841 she moved with her father to Foulshill, near Coventry.

In 1846, Mary Ann anonymously published a translation of D. F. Strauss's Life of Jesus. After her father's death (1849), she accepted the post of assistant editor at the Westminster Riviera, not without hesitation, and in 1851 moved to London. In 1854, her translation of The Essence of Christianity by L. Feuerbach was published. At the same time, her civil marriage began with J. G. Lewis, a well-known literary critic who also wrote for scientific and philosophical themes. In the first months of their life together, Mary Ann completed the translation of Spinoza's Ethics and in September 1856 turned to fiction.

Her first work was a series of three stories, which appeared in Blackwoods Magazine in 1857 under the general heading "Scenes of Clerical Life" and the pseudonym George Eliot. Like many other writers of the 19th century (George Sand, Marco Vovchok, the Bronte sisters - “Carrer, Ellis and Acton Bell”, Krestovsky-Khvoshchinskaya) - Mary Evans used a male pseudonym in order to arouse a serious attitude towards her writings in the public and taking care of the inviolability his personal life. (In the 19th century, her writings were translated into Russian without revealing the pseudonym, which was inclined like a male name and surname: "George Eliot's novel"). Nevertheless, Charles Dickens immediately guessed the woman in the mysterious Eliot.

Anticipating her future and best creations, the "Scenes" are full of intimate memories of the former, who did not yet know railways England.

Published in 1859, the novel "Adam Bede" (Adam Bede), unusually popular and perhaps the best pastoral novel in English literature, brought Eliot to the forefront of the Victorian novelists. In "Adam Bide" George Eliot wrote about the times of her father's youth (England of the late 18th century), in "The Mill on the Floss" (The Mill on the Floss, 1860) she turned to her own early impressions. The heroine of the novel, the passionate and spiritual Maggie Tulliver, has much in common with the young Mary Ann Evans. The most substantive of Eliot's rural novels is Silas Marner. The characters live a life convincing in the eyes of the reader, they are surrounded by a concrete, recognizable world. This is Eliot's last "autobiographical" novel. In "Romola" (Romola, 1863) tells about Florence of the 15th century, and the paintings of Italy of the Renaissance are also subtracted from books, as they were fed by the memories of the "scene" of the outgoing England. In Felix Holt the Radical (1866), returning to English life, Eliot discovered the temperament of a sharp social critic.

Eliot's universally recognized masterpiece is the novel "Middlemarch" (eng. Middlemarch); published in parts in 1871-1872. Eliot shows how a powerful striving for good can destroy a hidden weakness, how complexities of character nullify the noblest aspirations, how a moral rebirth befalls people who are not initially bad at all. Eliot's last novel, Daniel Deronda, appeared in 1876. Lewis died two years later, and the writer devoted herself to preparing his manuscripts for publication. In May 1880, she married an old family friend, D. W. Cross, but she died on December 22, 1880.

The life of George Eliot is not rich in outward events. They say that happy nations have no history, or rather that their history is uninteresting, and George Eliot most was very happy in her life. The monotony of her life, almost exclusively filled with spiritual, intellectual interests, comes out in front of us with particular relief if we compare it with the life of another famous writer, George Sand. The fate of George Sand could provide abundant material for not one but several novels: she had to endure all the suffering of an unsuccessful family life and a break with her husband, she had numerous romantic hobbies, and, finally, she took a fairly active part in the political life of France , even during the revolution of 1848 she edited one socialist newspaper. She had periods of intoxicating happiness, followed by periods of acute suffering and spiritual emptiness, George Eliot had nothing like that: the course of her life was much smoother and calmer. But if you look at life not from the point of view of external events, but from the side of its internal content, then it will be impossible not to admit that, despite the apparent monotony, her life was extremely interesting and could serve great theme for a psychological study.

The most characteristic feature of George Eliot as a person is her amazing seriousness. In her early youth, living on her father's farm, later co-editing the Westminster Review in London, and finally becoming a famous writer, she strikes us with her surprisingly serious and deep attitude to life and people, her greedy desire for knowledge. Religious and philosophical questions were for her not just interesting food for the mind: they excited and tormented her, she took them to heart as others usually take matters of personal life to heart. Reading Strauss, Spinoza or Comte was an event for her.

But, despite her passionate love of knowledge and love of studies, George Eliot was by no means what is commonly called " book man". She was very affectionate and knew how to love, which is already proved by the fact that she had so many friends, especially among women. Her letters to her friends (for example, Mrs. Congrave, Miss Gennel), written at the time when she already achieved fame, they breathe such warmth, such sincerity and simplicity, she so enters into all the petty details of their lives and so appreciates every manifestation of their sympathy for herself, that it is sometimes hard to believe that the famous writer writes this to the most ordinary, insignificant people. she was not even a shadow of vanity or arrogance.She was very kind and, in addition to the interest that people inspired in her as material for psychological observations, she always took an emotional part in their fate; as a result, according to the general opinion of all who knew her, communication with she was so extraordinarily attractive. They say that she was amazingly able to calm, encourage and console everyone who turned to her. She was a completely good person, and this is felt in her writings. For all the outward monotony and monotony, her life was full of the most diverse spiritual interests: science, literature, music, painting - all this was for her the subject of the greatest pleasures. She passionately loved nature and, walking alone somewhere in a field or even in the secluded alleys of a London park, she experienced such wonderful moments that only very few people can.

Here is a very accurate description of George Eliot from a great friend of hers, Mrs Bodishan. When Lewis died, she went some time later to visit George Eliot, who was then already 60 years old and who was terribly upset by the death of a loved one. Here is how she describes her impression of this visit: “I spent an hour with Mary Ann,” she writes in one letter, “and I cannot tell you how sweet she was. like some kind of shadow in her long black dress, she said that she had an awful lot of things to do and that she should be healthy, because "life is so amazingly interesting. " We both confessed to each other in our Great love to life".

It is this love of life, seen through in every line of her works, that makes main reason of that gratifying, reconciling impression that all the novels of this great writer leave in the soul of the reader.

Mary Ann Evans, who later became known as George Eliot, was born in the small town of Griff, in Warwickshire. Her father, Robert Evans, came from poor family and began life as a simple carpenter; then, with his work and energy, he achieved the fact that he became a prosperous farmer, enjoying the general respect of his neighbors for his extensive and varied information on agriculture. It was courageous fair man, who later served as the prototype of the hero of his daughter's best novel - "Adam Bede". Her mother was very kind woman, extremely fond of her children and husband, and a wonderful hostess. In this patriarchal, hardworking family, completely immersed in daily household chores, the future writer grew and developed, and the best, most works of art her, such as "Adam Beed", "The Mill on the Floss", "Siles Marner", are devoted to the description of this, familiar to her from childhood, the life of the English village.

In addition to Mary Ann, the Evans had two more children: daughter Christina and son Isaac. Christina was much older than her sister and kept aloof from the younger children, who were unusually friendly with each other.

Little Mary Ann did not at all look like a "phenomenal child": she was a lively, playful girl who did not like to sit in one place and was always ready for all sorts of pranks. It was difficult for her even to learn to read and write, which, however, did not come from incapacity, but from her extraordinary liveliness. Already in these early years, one characteristic, preserved throughout her subsequent life; I'm talking about her extraordinary affection and passionate, jealous attitude towards the object of her affection. As a child, her brother Isaac was such a subject: the description of Mapy and Tom in The Mill on the Floss contains many autobiographical details. The girl always, like a holiday, waited for her brother to return from school on Saturdays, and when he came, she did not lag behind him a single step and tried to imitate him in everything. The children had a lot of freedom on the farm with its large orchard, behind which flowed a river abounding in fish. Fishing was one of the favorite activities of little Mary Ann and her brother.

When Mary Ann was about eight years old, a severe crisis occurred in her childhood life: her brother was given a pony, and he was so carried away by this new fun that he began to disparage his sister and almost everyone. free time dedicated to his horse. The coldness of her brother upset the girl terribly and made her withdraw into herself. In general, as she grew older, her character changed, and she became more and more thoughtful and serious. When people came to her father on business, or in general there were guests on the farm, she usually climbed somewhere into a corner and sat there for hours, motionless, listening attentively to what the adults were talking about. She herself writes about herself later in a letter to Miss Lewis (1839): “When I was still a very young child, I could not be satisfied with what was happening around me, and constantly lived in some special world created by my imagination. I was even glad that I did not have any comrades, so that in freedom I could indulge in my dreams and invent all kinds of stories in which I was the main actor. You can imagine what kind of food for such dreams various novels, which early fell into my hands, delivered.

She became addicted to reading very early, but she had few books at home, and from frequent re-reading she knew them all almost by heart. Her favorite books were Aesop's fables and Defoe's History of the Devil. When she entered Miss Wellington's boarding house at Newgenton, she devoured reading and read everything she could get her hands on.

One of the governesses, Miss Lewis, took a great liking to Mary Ann; good relations between them remained even after the girl left the boarding school, so they often corresponded. She was very religious and conveyed this feeling to her favorite student.

Mary Ann studied very well, and when she moved from Newgenton to Miss Franklin's in the nearest town of Coventry, she became positively the pride of her teachers. She was especially good at writing compositions and playing music. A precocious, serious, silent girl kept aloof from her friends and did not get along with any of them. Her friends treated her with involuntary respect, realizing that she was much higher than them in intelligence and knowledge, but they did not like her, they considered her dry and boring. One of these ex girlfriends says that the whole class was once extremely amazed when they accidentally found out that this same Mary Ann Evans, who seemed so cold and inaccessible to them, writes sentimental rhymes in which she complains of loneliness, of an unsatisfied thirst for love, and so on. In appearance, Mary Ann differed from her friends in the same way as in her abilities and development. She seemed much older than her age, and at 12 or 13 she looked like a real little woman. It is said that a gentleman who came to the boarding house on some business mistook a thirteen-year-old girl for a certain Miss Franklin, who at that time was already a very respectable old maid.

Returning home for the holidays, Mary Ann no longer indulged, as before, in various children's pranks and games. All this had long since ceased to interest her, and here, as at school, she would sit over a book all days and even nights, much to the displeasure of her mother, whose economic heart could not reconcile herself to the fact that her daughter wasted so many candles sitting at with their books. However, the parents were very proud of their smart and learned daughter, and her success in the boarding school was for them. great joy. They did not spare money for her education and gave her complete freedom to study and read as much as she liked. The girl arranged Sunday school on her father's farm and worked there with peasant children.

In 1855, she completed her education and returned home, where she had to devote herself entirely to caring for her sick mother, whose health was deteriorating. In the summer of the same year, the mother died, and some time after the death of the mother, the eldest daughter of Mr. Evans married, so that seventeen-year-old Mary Ann remained the only mistress in her father's house.

George Eliot was very unattractive. “A small, thin figure, with a disproportionately large head, a sickly complexion, a rather regular, but somewhat massive nose for a woman’s face, and a large mouth with “English” teeth protruding forward,” the late Kovalevskaya, who taught mathematics at Stockholm, describes her in her memoirs. university and met her during her stay in London. True, Kovalevskaya adds that the unpleasant impression made by the appearance of George Eliot disappeared as soon as she began to speak - such was her charming voice and so charming was her whole personality. She further cites the words of Turgenev, this famous connoisseur and admirer of female beauty, who said about George Eliot: "I know that she is ugly, but when I'm with her, I don't see it." Turgenev also said that George Eliot was the first to make him understand that it is possible to fall madly in love with a completely ugly woman. But the fact is that both Turgenev and Kovalevskaya met Mary Ann at a time when she was already at the top of her literary glory. Everyone willingly forgave the famous writer for her sickly thinness, and her old-fashioned appearance, and her ugly features, and, despite all this, they found her charming; but such an attitude, of course, was not to the daughter of a simple farmer, who had not yet declared herself in anything and differed only in her ugly appearance and love for serious occupations. One must think that the men she had to deal with in the days of her youth did not share Turgenev's enthusiastic opinion about her female attractiveness. The element of courtship and love, which plays such an important role in a woman's life, was almost completely absent in her life - and this circumstance, of course, influenced the formation of her character.

Returning home from the boarding house, Miss Evans was all imbued with evangelical ideas, inspired by the teacher Miss Lewis, and, absorbed in thoughts about God and the salvation of the soul, tried to subordinate her life to ascetic religious principles. Being in London for the first time with her brother, she never went to the theater, considering it a sin, and spent most of her time visiting London churches. On this first stay in London, the most strong impression the Greenwich Hospital and the ringing of bells in St. Paul's Church made her sick. In her village she led a very active life, managing all the household chores on the farm, and although this occupation was not at all to her liking, she nevertheless conscientiously performed all her household duties and was an excellent housewife. Dairy farming took up especially a lot of time and labor from her, and later, having already become a famous writer, George Eliot with some pride showed one of her friends that one of her hands was somewhat wider than the other, which was the result of increased churning of butter, which she was engaged in. youth.

She constantly worked on her education, continued to study German and Italian, and also devoted part of her time to philanthropy. But all this, of course, could not satisfy the young girl, full of a thirst for knowledge and mental inquiries, so that a lonely life in an abandoned, remote village seemed to her at times unbearably boring and monotonous. She had long since parted ways with her brother, their childhood friendship was replaced by simple good relations based on family ties, and not on common spiritual interests. Her brother was a man of a completely different stock - a practical, practical owner, who loves hunting, all kinds of sports and is quite content with the company of neighboring farmers. He did not understand the interests and aspirations of his sister and laughed at her religious hobbies. He especially attacked her constant sitting at books and dismissive attitude to your appearance. In his opinion, she was not at all what a young girl at her age should be. She herself later said to herself: "I then had the appearance of some kind of owl, which was the usual subject of indignation for my brother." She loved her father very much, but it is clear that the old farmer, who spent his whole life in the countryside, could not be a real comrade for a young girl studying classical languages ​​​​and painfully thinking about questions about God and the purpose of the universe. The only person to whom Miss Evans could pour out her soul was her former teacher, Miss Lewis, and from letters to her we can form an idea of ​​the then mood of the young girl. It is evident from these letters that she worked diligently on her education and pursued a wide variety of subjects; they mention history, literature, the study of Latin verbs, chemistry and entomology, and finally even philosophy. But since she was then mainly interested in questions of religion, she read religious books with particular enthusiasm, for example, Pascal's Thoughts, Hanna More's letters, Humberfield's biography, Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ, and others. Deep faith in God and work on her moral perfection - that was the main content of her spiritual life at that time. She was one of those deep, self-centered natures in which there is a constant desire for something great and eternal, lying beyond the boundaries of the phenomena of everyday life, and in early youth this mystical desire for infinity found its complete satisfaction in religion.

“Oh, if we could only live for eternity, if we could realize its closeness,” she writes Miss Lewis. “The wonderful, clear sky that stretches out above me excites in me some inexpressible feeling of delight and aspiration for the highest perfection ". Many of her letters breathe the same enthusiastic, almost ecstatic religious mood; she decided to give up personal happiness forever and devote her life to the realization of the Christian ideal. Thus, for example, she writes to Miss Lewis: “When I hear that people are getting married and getting married, I always think with regret that they increase the number of their earthly attachments, which are so strong that they distract them from thoughts of eternity and God, and at the same time so powerless in themselves that they can be destroyed by the slightest breath of the wind.You will probably say that all that remains for me is to settle in a barrel in order to become a real Diogenes in a skirt, but this is not true, because although I sometimes have misanthropic thoughts, but in fact I do not sympathize with misanthropes at all. Nevertheless, I still think that the most happy people- these are those who do not count on earthly happiness and look at life as a pilgrimage calling for struggle and hardship, and not for pleasure and peace. I do not deny that there are people who enjoy all earthly joys and at the same time live in complete unity with God, but for me personally this is completely unrealistic. I find that, as Dr. Johnson says of wine, complete abstinence is easier than moderation."

The young girl's religious mood culminated in her first literary work, a poem conceived during her solitary walks through the woods surrounding her father's farm. In this poem, she, as if feeling the closeness of death, says goodbye to what was dearest to her on earth - with nature and with her books - and happily prepares for the transition to another life. The poem was published in the spiritual magazine "Christian Observer" and after that Miss Evans did not write anything else in the field of fine literature for 17 years. But, despite the serious nature of Miss Evans and her sincere penetration of Christian principles, youth still took its toll, and we see that the ascetic renunciation of life and its joys was not so easy for her. In many letters to Miss Lewis and to her aunt (a Methodist preacher, who later served as a model for her when creating the type of Dinah Maurice in "Adam Bide"), she laments that various "vain inclinations" prevent her from completely indulging in the fulfillment of her duty, that " main enemy her - this is her imagination. "In addition, she was sometimes very burdened by the monotony of village life and the constant loneliness in which she was. " Lately I somehow especially vividly feel that I am alone in the world ... - she writes to Miss Lewis. “I don’t have anyone who would enter into my joys and sorrows, to whom I could pour out my whole soul, who would live in the same interests as me.”

Miss Evans was about 21 years old when her brother married, and her father, having leased the farm to him, moved with his daughter to the neighboring city of Coventry. Transition from secluded rural life to the city had a great influence on the young girl. Here she met a circle of intelligent people with whom she became very close; thanks to them, she had to face completely new ideas and views for her, which made a whole revolution in her worldview. The circle of her new acquaintances consisted of a local manufacturer, Mr. Bray, a very intelligent and well-read man, who studied philosophy and phrenology in his spare time, and the family of his wife - her sister, Miss Sarah Gennel, who later became Miss Evans' closest friend, and her brother , Mr. Charles Gennel, author of the well-known work of his time, On the Origin of Christianity, in which he comes to the same conclusions as Strauss did in his Life of Christ. All these were people who were interested in science and literature and followed the mental life of their time. Many of the prominent writers and figures visited them, for example, the historian Froud, Emerson, Robert Owen.

This acquaintance opened up a whole new world for Mary Ann. In a short time she became close friends with Mr. Bray himself and his family; they often saw each other, read together, studied languages, studied music, talked and argued about all sorts of subjects, and under the influence of such frequent communication with people of a different way of thinking, doubts began to arise in the steadfastness of religious dogmas. The book of Mr. Charles Gennel, already mentioned above, On the Origin of Christianity, had a particularly strong effect on her in this respect. She writes to Miss Lewis: “The last few days I have been completely immersed in the most interesting of all studies in the world, and what result it will lead me to, I don’t know yet: maybe one that will amaze you ... I hope that separation will not affect our friendship, unless you are willing to turn your back on me due to a change in my views."

The upheaval that took place in the religious views of Miss Evans was reflected in her life primarily by the fact that she stopped going to church. Her whole, sincere nature always made her strive to harmonize her beliefs with life. As before she was completely absorbed in thoughts of God and refused all pleasures so as not to disturb her religious mood, so now, when her views had changed, she did not want to be hypocritical and perform the external rites of religion. This led to a major quarrel with the father, who was a man of the old school, deeply religious and could not indifferently endure such free-thinking in his daughter. Relations between them became so aggravated that Mr. Evans had already instructed his attorney to look for other tenants for their newly finished house in Coventry, and he himself wanted to move to live with his eldest married daughter. Mary Ann intended to live by her work, and had already found a place for herself as a teacher in a women's boarding school in Leamington, but thanks to the intervention of their friends and Mr. Isaac Evans, the old man decided to make peace with his daughter and everything remained as before. George Eliot later told her second husband, Mr. Cross, that not a single episode in her life left behind so many painful memories and repentance as this quarrel with her father. In essence, she considered herself right, but believed that with greater meekness and compliance on her part, this clash could be significantly softened.

When life got back on track, the young girl set to work with redoubled energy. With the move to the city, she had a lot of free time, because here she did not have to take care of the household, as in the countryside. In addition, it was much more convenient to get books here, and next to her were people who were always ready to give all possible support to her studies. She studied not in an amateurish way, for a pleasant pastime: teaching was then the main thing in her life for her, and thanks to hard and long work she achieved that she could stand on the same level with the most educated and even learned people of her time.

After the change that had taken place in her outlook on the world, she took up the study of philosophy with particular enthusiasm. In her letters of this period, there is nothing pointing to the suffering that usually accompanies such strong spiritual crises as the transition from faith to unbelief. On the contrary, all her letters breathe with unusual cheerfulness and enthusiastic readiness to work on a new path. The change in her religious beliefs did not in the least affect the very essence of her worldview: left "without dogma", she retained all her previous views on the moral tasks and aspirations of man. She writes to Mrs. Pierce (Mr. Bray's sister): "... I desire nothing so passionately as to take at least some part in the crusade for the liberation of the truth. Although now my actions are no longer dependent on any fear of eternal torment , nor from the hope of eternal bliss, I still continue to deeply believe that the only possible happiness lies in the submission of one's will Higher beginning in constant pursuit of perfection.

The first years of life in Coventry were a very happy time for Miss Evans. After a monotonous life in the village, she completely came to life, falling into the intelligent circle of Mr. Bray. Throwing off her former asceticism, she enthusiastically indulges in those very "vain" pleasures that she previously so resolutely denied, and, having gone to London for a while with her friends, she visits theaters and concerts with great zeal, examines art galleries and other attractions. In a letter to Miss Sarah Gennel she writes: "I hope you are enjoying the wonderful spring weather as I am! What a long time it takes to learn to be happy! I am now beginning to make some progress in this area and hope to prove to myself the injustice of Jung's theory that, as soon as we find the key to life, it opens the gates of death for us. I will never believe that youth is the happiest time in life. What a gloomy prospect for the progress of nations and the development of individuals if the most mature and enlightened age is considered the least happy! Childhood is good only in novels and memories. For the child himself, it is full of deep sorrows, the meaning of which is incomprehensible to adults. All this shows that we are happier now than when we were seven years old, and when we will be forty years old, we will be happier than now. This is a very reassuring doctrine, and worth believing in it.

By a strange coincidence, in relation to George Eliot herself, this reassuring doctrine really turned out to be true: the happiness of love, creativity and fame all suddenly flooded over her just when she was about forty years old.

In 1844, Miss Evans began her first literary work, a translation of Strauss' Life of Christ. This translation cost her a lot of work: she worked on it for almost three years and later admitted that she did not spend as much work and effort on any of her novels as on this translation. She was very conscientious about her task and even learned the Hebrew language so that she could check all the quotes given by Strauss. By that time, she was already quite fluent in Greek and Latin. In the end, the translation tired her a little; in her letters one often comes across complaints about this stupefying work, that "she is ill with Strauss," and so on.

But nevertheless, when the translation was completed and handed over to Mr. Chapman (the future publisher of the Westminster Review), she soon set to work again on the translation work - Feuerbach's "The Essence of Christianity", which was also published by Chapman, and on the writings of Spinoza. In general, Mary Ann apparently intended to acquaint the English public with a whole series of translations of classical writings on philosophy.

But, plunging into the depths of abstract philosophical thinking, Miss Evans at the same time was far from being alien to those questions that worried her contemporaries. She was an enthusiastic admirer of George Sand and read her novels, although she did not share her views on love and family. She was also fond of the writings of Rousseau and the latest French socialists. When the revolution of 1848 flared up in the West, Miss Evans followed with passionate attention all the vicissitudes of this great struggle, and in her letters there are many warm, feeling words about the revolution. Thus, she writes to Mr. John Sibri: “I am terribly glad that you have the same opinion as I about a great nation and its deeds. Your enthusiasm pleases me all the more because I did not expect it at all. I thought that you did not revolutionary fire, but now I see that you are quite enough "sans cullotisch" and do not belong to the number of sages in whom reason dominates feeling so much that they are not even able to rejoice at this great event, which goes so far beyond the limits of everyday life .. I thought that we are now experiencing such hard days when no great popular movement is conceivable and that, in the words of Saint-Simon, a "critical" historical period has come, but now I begin to be proud of our time. I would gladly give a few years of my life to be there now and look at the people of the barricade, bowing before the image of Christ, who first taught people brotherhood. " "Poor Louis Blanc! she writes later to Mr. Bray. - Newspapers plunge me into terrible despondency. However, let me be ashamed of what I call him poor! The day will come when the people will erect a magnificent monument to him and to all those people who in our sinful days kept a deep faith that the kingdom of Mammon would come to an end ... I simply idolize the man who decided to proclaim that inequality of talents should not lead to inequality of reward but to an inequality of responsibilities."

However, it should be noted that the young girl's enthusiastic sympathy for the French revolutionaries and her passion for the ideas of the socialists - all this was purely platonic in nature. She herself always stood apart from public life and, despite her theoretical sympathy for socialism, never took any part in the socialist movement that began in England in the 1860s. She had a completely different nature, and she was always much more interested in questions of art and philosophy than in politics and public affairs. Her temporary infatuation French Revolution just coincided with the period of her most passionate passion for philosophy. Miss Edith Simkops relates in her memoirs of George Eliot that one day, when they were walking with Miss Evans in the vicinity of Coventry and talking about philosophy, a young girl exclaimed with fervor: "Oh, if I could reconcile the philosophy of Locke with Kant! For the sake of it it was worth to live." In one of her letters to Miss Gennel, she writes that she is going to take up independent work and write a study "On the advantage of the comforts delivered by philosophy over the comforts delivered by religion."

But despite the consolations brought by philosophy, her personal life at that time was very sad. Her father was dangerously ill, and the young girl, herself constantly suffering from terrible headaches and nervous breakdown, had to devote almost all her time to caring for him. Her father's illness and her own almost constant ill health took a heavy toll on her mood. In addition, she was sometimes involuntarily seized by the consciousness that youth was passing (she was already 28 years old), that the best years had been lived, and, although she tried to console herself philosophical reflections about the fact that the older a person is, the more capable he is of reasonable enjoyment of life - but one must think that these consolations were not particularly effective. At least from her letters it is clear that she had to go through many bitter moments under the influence of such thoughts. So, for example, she writes to Miss Gennel: “Imagine the unpleasant situation of a poor mortal who wakes up one fine morning and sees that all the poetry that filled his life last night has suddenly disappeared somewhere, and he is left face alone. to face the hard and prosaic world of tables, chairs and mirrors.This is how it happens at all stages of life: the poetry of girlhood passes, the poetry of love and marriage, the poetry of motherhood, and finally even the poetry of the fulfillment of duty disappears, and then we ourselves and everything around us are presented to us in the form of some miserable combinations of atoms... I am sometimes attacked by some strange insanity, quite the opposite of the delirium that makes the patient assume that the body fills all space with itself. I decrease and approach mathematical abstraction - a point.

Her father's health was deteriorating, and Miss Evans had very little free time for herself. Nevertheless, she nevertheless undertook a new work - the translation of Spinoza's "Political-Theological Treatise". Spinoza was one of her favorite writers, and she undertook the translation to make it accessible to Mr. Bray, who did not know Latin. The study of Spinoza and his translation gave her great pleasure, but she could hardly do it, because she spent days and nights at the bedside of her dying father.

Mr. Evans died in May 1849, and after his death, Mary Ann was left all alone in the world. The death of her father greatly undermined her already deranged health, so her friends persuaded her to spend a year abroad, in Switzerland, in order to strengthen her strength. She went with the Brays to Italy, and then settled in Geneva, where she spent about a year. The complete change of scenery and the mild Swiss climate did her great good: she became very healthy, her nerves strengthened, and she returned to England with renewed vigor. She was very pleased with her stay in Geneva. Especially a lot of pleasure brought her wonderful Swiss nature. "I like Geneva more and more every day," she writes to Mrs. Bray. "I believe that you are on earth. Living here, you can completely forget that there are such things as need, labor and suffering in the world. Constant contemplation of this beauty acts like chloroform on the soul. I feel that I am beginning to sink into some kind of pleasant state close to unconscious...

But this rest did not last long. As soon as Mary Ann recovered somewhat and settled into her new life, she again set to work, and, above all, the unfinished translation of Spinoza.

In addition, Miss Evans studied a little higher mathematics and listened to lectures in physics by the then famous Professor de la Riva. After living for about a year in Geneva, she returned to England and, after spending some time with her brother on the farm and with the Brays in Coventry, settled in London and began to live by literary work. Mr. Bray's close friend, Chapman, who published her philosophical translations, invited her to be co-editor of the Westminster Review, which had passed to him from the hands of Mill, and she embarked on a new path of journalism with great joy.

The Westminster Review, in whose publication Miss Evans now began to take a close part, was at that time the main organ of the English positivists, around which were grouped such eminent writers and scientists as Spencer, Lewis, Harriet Martini, the historians Froude, Grote, and others. Miss Evans rented a room in the family of the publisher Mr. Chapman and was a very active member of the editorial board.

She not only wrote monthly critical articles, but also performed various draft journal work, read manuscripts and kept proofs. Of her critical essays, the most interesting is an article on women writers entitled "Silly novels by lady novelists". In it, the future writer is extremely disapproving of women's creativity; it is characteristic that she reproaches contemporary English writers mainly for their ignorance folk life. Here are the following words showing her view of the tasks of a novelist: "Art should stand as close as possible to life; it replenishes our personal experience and expands our knowledge of people. Especially sacred is the duty of the writer who undertakes to portray the life of the people. If we get wrong ideas about the manners and conversations of some marquises and earls, then the trouble will still not be particularly great; but it is important that we establish the right attitude towards joys and sorrows, to work and struggle in the lives of people doomed to a hard working existence, and literature should help us in this. with the theoretical requirements expressed in the above lines.

At the beginning of her stay in London, Miss Evans was somewhat taken with the new atmosphere. literary world into which she has now fallen. Getting to know different prominent people, visiting concerts, theaters and public lectures, literary meetings that took place weekly in the editorial office - all this at first seemed extremely interesting and tempting for a girl who had spent her whole life in a village and a small provincial town. But soon all this noisy cycle of London life and constant stay among strangers began to tire her very much. She was especially bothered by her complete loneliness. With the death of her father, she lost the only person who needed and needed her cares: despite the purely masculine mindset, in her nature there was too much feminine and maternal to be satisfied with exclusively intellectual and literary interests. The older she got, the more this need for a family, for close person became stronger and stronger. But she, apparently, considered her personal life already finished and did not count on anything in the future. “What ugly old hags we all become,” she writes Miss Gennel sadly. “Maybe one day something extraordinary will happen to me, but so far nothing has happened except the call for dinner and the arrival of new proofs” .

She really did not even suspect then what "extraordinary events" awaited her in the very near future. Of all her new acquaintances, she was closest to Herbert Spencer, then a budding writer who had only published his Social Statics. Friendship with him, according to George Eliot herself, was the brightest phenomenon in her London life. "Without him, my existence here would be rather bleak," she writes to Miss Gennel. Spencer introduced her to Lewis, who was destined to play such an important role in her life.

Lewis was at that time one of the most popular English journalists. He was a man of very versatile education and possessed a great literary talent, but for a real scientist he lacked depth and solidity. As one of the English critics rightly put it about him, he was "a journalist in philosophy and a philosopher in journalism." He did not contribute anything new to science, but many of his writings are still in use today. great fame and translated into foreign languages, including in Russian ("History of philosophy in the biographies of its main figures", "Physiology of everyday life", "Life of Goethe", "Opost Comte and positive philosophy"). As a person, Lewis, according to everyone who knew him, was unusually sympathetic: he was lively, addicted, witty man, bringing with it revival everywhere. With his appearance and manner, disheveled hair and beard, loud voice and constant gestures, he struck stiff English society and seemed to be some kind of foreigner in it. He led a very active lifestyle, traveled a lot, studied the most diverse branches of knowledge, wrote magazine articles, tried his hand at fiction (he wrote two novels: "Rantron" and "Pink, White and Purple") and even once depicted a harlequin in troupe of itinerant actors. Thackeray said of him that he would not have been at all surprised if one fine day he saw Lewis driving around the streets of London on a white elephant.

Lewis was married and had three sons, but separated from his wife a few years after the wedding. At the time he met Miss Evans through Spencer, he was living in London as a bachelor and publishing the weekly newspaper Leader. His first impression on Miss Evans was rather unfavorable. She writes about him to Miss Gennel that "in appearance it is something like a Mirabeau in miniature", and with light irony refers to his noisy manner and constant gaiety. But this first impression, apparently, soon vanished: they often saw each other on editorial business, and close, friendly relations were gradually established between these people, so different in everything, which, imperceptibly for both, turned into a completely different kind of feeling. Miss Evans' letters to friends take on a completely different character: a new, cheerful trickle appears in them, the name Lewis is more and more common. “We had a very good evening last Friday,” she writes to Miss Gennel. “Lewis, as always, was entertaining and witty. He, somehow against my will, took possession of my favor.” After a while, she writes again: “Yesterday I was at the French theater, and today I’m going to the opera to listen to William Tell. Everyone is very kind to me, especially Mr. Lewis, who completely won my heart, despite the fact that at first he did not inspire me special sympathy. He belongs to the few who are actually better than they seem. This is a man with a heart and a conscience, only putting on some kind of frivolity and recklessness. "

Lewis becomes her regular guest and accompanies her to theaters, concerts and other public places. It can be seen from the letters that their closeness is increasing. She writes to Miss Gennel: "All this time I did not write to you because I was very busy: I moved to another apartment, and there was a lot of fuss with this move. In addition, I promised to do one job for a certain person who, perhaps, is still lazier than me, so I don't have a single free minute." This lazy person was none other than Lewis, for whom she read the proofs of his newspaper.

When Lewis fell ill, Miss Evans was extremely disturbed by this, became his nurse and undertook to do all the compulsory literary work for him. In her letters, there are sometimes hints of an impending turning point in her life, of her intention to go abroad for a while, although she does not write anything definite. “I begin my 34th year happier than any of the previous ones,” she writes to Miss Gennel, but does not explain what, in fact, this happiness consists of. Therefore, all her relatives and friends were unusually amazed when she suddenly, without warning anyone and without consulting anyone, went abroad with Lewis.

get along with married man and openly live with him as his wife - it was such bold move, which no one could expect from a quiet, silent, even a little dry girl, completely immersed in philosophy, in her literary works and, apparently, never thought about love. As Kovalevskaya rightly notes in her memoirs of George Eliot, in order to understand the full significance of this act, one must remember the terrible stiffness and oppression of decency that prevail in English society. Miss Evans's family were so scandalized by her "immorality" that they broke off all communication with her; the vast majority of acquaintances also departed from it; even the Brays, with whom she had such a sincere and long friendship, were extremely dissatisfied with the change that had taken place in her life, and between them there was a small quarrel, which, however, lasted no more than a year. But despite the general indignation that fell upon her from all sides, Miss Evans was truly deeply happy. In her life, happiness took a long time to come and came quite unexpectedly, when she had already ceased to hope for the possibility of it. And the need for this happiness was always very strong in her: she was terribly burdened by her loneliness, by the fact that there is not a single person "who would need her and whose life would be worse without her."

Here is a letter from her to Mrs. Bray, written a year after leaving abroad. This letter shows how she herself looked at her union with Lewis: “I consider my relationship with Mr. Lewis to be the deepest and most serious fact in my life. I fully understand that you can be mistaken in many ways about me, especially since You do not know Mr. Lewis at all, and besides, we have not seen each other for so long that you can easily assume some changes in my views and character, which in reality do not exist ... I will tell you only one thing: not in theory, nor in practice do I recognize fleeting, easily broken ties. Women who are satisfied with such ties do not act as I did. If such an unprejudiced person as you calls my relationship with Mr. Lewis "immoral", then I can explain to myself, only by remembering what complex and varied elements people's judgments are made up of. And I always try to remember this and treat those who so severely condemn us with indulgence. However, from the vast majority we could not expect anything but the most severe sentence. . But we are so happy with each other that all this is not difficult to endure.

Miss Evans really never had to regret her bold decision. Their twenty-four-year life together was a model of family happiness. It is remarkable that time did not change their relationship in the least, and many years after their rapprochement, they both rejoiced at the thought of spending the evening together, like some kind of lovers. In the letters and diaries of George Eliot, there are constant references to Lewis and her love for him.

So, in 1865, 10 years after their rapprochement, she writes in her diary: "George is again terribly busy. How I love his constant good spirits, his mind, his warm concern for everyone who needs him! This love - the best part of my life." The strength of their relationship is largely due to the fact that, in addition to love, their life was filled with a wide variety of mental interests, which were for both of them above everything in the world. George Eliot took an active part in her husband's scientific work, just as he did in her literary works. Lewis was passionately in love with Miss Evans. What role she played in his life is evident from an excerpt from his diary.

Speaking of his friendship with Spencer, he adds: "I am extremely indebted to him. Acquaintance with him was a bright ray for me in one very difficult, fruitless period of my life. I abandoned all ambitious plans, lived from day to day and was content with daily troubles "Communication with him revived my energy and resurrected the love for science, which was already dying in me. To Spencer, I am indebted for another, much more important and profound revolution in my life: through him I met Mary Ann; to know her meant her to love, and since then for me began new life. To her I owe all my success and all my happiness. God bless her."

For the sons of Lewis, George Eliot was a real mother. From her correspondence with them it is clear that she entered into all the little things of their childhood life and treated them with purely maternal care. The boys called her "mother" and loved her very much. From all this it is very clear how wrong those were who were so ardently indignant at Miss Evans for destroying someone else's family, when, on the contrary, she arranged a real family life for Lewis and his children.

Eliot's work is close to naturalism in some ways, which, however, did not prevent her in the novel The Mill on the Floss (Russian translation, 1860) from typical picture life of the provincial bourgeoisie.

Works signed male name"George Eliot" (George Eliot), for a century and a half. The way of life, way of life and traditions, against which the action of such novels as "Middlemarch", "Siles Manner", "The Mill on the Floss" unfolds, has long gone down in history, but the concreteness and recognizability of details, the psychological accuracy of the characters and the relationships of the characters, as well as masterfully painted pictures of old England attract new and new generations of readers to them. Mary Evans, married Cross, was not the only writer who preferred to publish her work under a male name - just think of such a well-known name in the literature of the XXI century as Georges Sand. However, such a fine connoisseur of human souls as Charles Dickens, not being familiar with the writer, immediately guessed that a woman calls herself George Elliot.

Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans was born on November 22, 1819 in a house located in countryside Derbyshire. Her father, Robert Evans, a native of Wales, was the manager of Arbury Hall, the family estate of the Newdigate barons, and her mother, Christina Pearson, was the daughter of a farmer. Robert's two children from a previous marriage were already growing up in the family, as well as the eldest daughter Chrissy and son Isaac. Mary was considered an ugly girl, but she was smart and loved to read. Robert Evans understood that neither external data nor a dowry could provide his daughter with an advantageous marriage and a worthy place in society, so he decided to give her a good education. From the age of five to sixteen, the girl studied at closed schools.

Christina Evans died in 1836. Mary took over

and the whole household, she did not part with her father until his death in 1849. The girl was allowed to use the magnificent library of Archery Hall, and she perfectly studied the books of the classics, including in Latin and Greek. In 1840, after her brother's marriage, Mary Evans and her father moved to the town of Foulshill, near Coventry. There she met the philanthropist manufacturer Charles Bray, who maintained extensive communication with philosophers, writers, liberal religious figures, in particular, with Robert Owen, David Strauss, Ludwig Feuerbach.

In 1846, Mary Evans anonymously published her first book, a translation of Strauss' Life of Christ. After the death of her father, she traveled around Europe for some time, then came to London, where she settled in the house of her old acquaintance from Coventry, the publisher John Chapman. He published the Westminster Review, a literary and philosophical journal, and after much hesitation and persuasion by Chapman, Mary, who began to call herself Marian, took the position of an unpaid assistant editor in the journal. Simultaneously with the enormous work that had to be done in the magazine, Marian was translating Feuerbach's book, The Essence of Christianity. This translation was published in 1854 and was the only work that Marian Evans published under her real name. In the same year, she met the philosopher and critic George Henry Lewis. Despite the fact that Lewis was married to Agnes Jervis and had three children, he entered into an agreement with his wife on mutual freedom; four children of Agnes

Whose father was the editor of the Daily Telegraph, Thornton Hart, were formally considered the children of Lewis, and divorce under the laws of that time was almost impossible. Although extramarital affairs were not uncommon in Victorian England, and among writers and journalists they were very common, open communication was considered a challenge to society. The romance of Marian Evans and George Lewis began in 1854 and marked a new stage her literary work. In the first months of their joint trip to Weimar, Marian completed the translation of Baruch Spinoza's Ethics and began writing fiction.

In 1857, the Blackwood Magazine began publishing a series of short stories entitled "Scenes from the Life of the Clergy" by George Elliot. The choice of a male pseudonym was not accidental - at that time, as to this day, "ladies'" prose is a priori considered as a frivolous entertaining reading; in addition, Marian did not want to draw the attention of readers to her person and the peculiarities of her personal life. In 1859, Marian wrote her first major novel, Adam Bede. The background for this book was the time familiar to her from the stories of her father - the end of the 18th century. The novel enjoyed extraordinary popularity, and to this day is considered the best English novel in the "country" style. This book was admired by Queen Victoria, who commissioned the artist Edward Corbould to create a series of paintings based on Adam Bede.

The next novel, The Mill on the Floss (1860), described the events that took place during the youth of the writer herself, and the heroine of this work, Maggie Tewle

liver, in many ways resembled the young Mary Evans. On title page"Mills on the Floss" flaunted a dedication: "To my beloved husband, George Henry Lewis, I dedicate my third book, written in the sixth year of our life together." The following year, the writer published her last "autobiographical" work, Silas Marner. In 1863 Marian Evans wrote historical novel"Romola", which takes place in Renaissance Florence, and in 1866 - a sharp socio-critical narrative "Felix Holt, Radical". This was followed by the poem "Spanish Gypsy", written in blank verse, but she, like the poetic experiments of the young Mary Evans, was not successful. But the novel "Middlemarch" (1870), showing the story of the moral rebirth of heroes, became her best book and made the glory of English literature. The latest work writer was "Daniel Deronda", written in 1876.

The success of the George Elliot novels softened the public reaction to the union between Lewis and Evans, especially since their relationship had stood the test of time; in 1877, the writer was even introduced to Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise. Lewis died in 1877. For two years, Marian prepared his last work, Life and Mind, for publication, and in May 1880 she again challenged society: she married an old family friend, John Cross, who was fifteen years younger than her and was depressed after the death of her mother. However, the marriage was short: in December 1880, the writer died. Her ashes are buried in Highgate Cemetery, next to the grave of Henry Lewis.

In 1841 she moved with her father to Foulshill, near Coventry.
In 1846, Mary Ann anonymously published a translation of D. F. Strauss's Life of Jesus. After her father's death (1849), she accepted the post of assistant editor at the Westminster Riviera, not without hesitation, and in 1851 moved to London. In 1854, her translation of The Essence of Christianity by L. Feuerbach was published. At the same time, her civil marriage began with J. G. Lewis, a well-known literary critic who also wrote on scientific and philosophical topics. In the first months of their life together, Mary Ann completed the translation of Spinoza's Ethics and in September 1856 turned to fiction.

Her first work was a cycle of three stories that appeared in the Blackwoods Magazine in 1857 under the general title Scenes from the Life of the Clergy (Eng. Scenes of Clerical Life) and the pseudonym George Eliot. Like many other writers of the 19th century (George Sand, Marco Vovchok, the Bronte sisters - “Carrer, Ellis and Acton Bell”, Krestovsky-Khvoshchinskaya) - Mary Evans used a male pseudonym in order to arouse a serious attitude towards her writings in the public and taking care of the inviolability his personal life. (In the 19th century, her writings were translated into Russian without disclosing a pseudonym, which was inclined like a male name and surname: "George Eliot's novel"). Nevertheless, Charles Dickens immediately guessed the woman in the mysterious Eliot.
Anticipating her future and best creations, the "Scenes" are full of intimate memories of the former England, which did not yet know the railways.
Published in 1859, the novel Adam Bede, an extremely popular and perhaps the best pastoral novel in English literature, brought Eliot to the forefront of Victorian novelists. In "Adam Bide" George Eliot wrote about the times of his father's youth (England of the late 18th century), in "The Mill on the Floss" (Eng. The Mill on the Floss, 1860) she turned to her own early impressions. The heroine of the novel, the passionate and spiritual Maggie Tulliver, has much in common with the young Mary Ann Evans. The most substantive of Eliot's "rural" novels is Silas Marner. The characters live a life convincing in the eyes of the reader, they are surrounded by a concrete, recognizable world. This is Eliot's last "autobiographical" novel. Romola (1863) tells of 15th-century Florence, and the paintings of Renaissance Italy are as subtracted from books as they were nourished by the memories of the “scene” of the outgoing England. In Felix Holt the Radical (1866), returning to English life, Eliot discovered the temperament of a sharp social critic.
Published in 1868, a long poem in white verse, The Spanish Gypsy, like her other experiments in poetry, did not stand the test of time.
Eliot's universally recognized masterpiece is the novel "Middlemarch" (eng. Middlemarch); published in parts in 1871-1872. Eliot shows how a powerful striving for good can destroy a hidden weakness, how complexities of character nullify the noblest aspirations, how a moral rebirth befalls people who are not initially bad at all. Eliot's last novel, Daniel Deronda, appeared in 1876. Lewis died two years later, and the writer devoted herself to preparing his manuscripts for publication. In May 1880, she married an old family friend, D. W. Cross, but she died on December 22, 1880.

Eliot's work is close to naturalism in some ways, which, however, did not prevent her in the novel The Mill on the Floss (Russian translation of 1860) from reproducing a typical picture of the life of provincial philistinism.

Works signed by the male name "George Eliot" (George Eliot), already a century and a half. The way of life, way of life and traditions, against which the action of such novels as "Middlemarch", "Siles Manner", "The Mill on the Floss" unfolds, has long gone down in history, but the concreteness and recognizability of details, the psychological accuracy of the characters and the relationships of the characters, as well as masterfully painted pictures of old England attract new and new generations of readers to them. Mary Evans, married Cross, was not the only writer who preferred to publish her work under a male name - just think of such a well-known name in the literature of the XXI century as Georges Sand. However, such a subtle connoisseur of human souls as Charles Dickens, not being familiar with the writer, immediately guessed that a woman calls herself George Elliot.

Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans was born on November 22, 1819 in a house located in the countryside of Derbyshire. Her father, Robert Evans, a native of Wales, was the manager of Arbury Hall, the family estate of the Newdigate barons, and her mother, Christina Pearson, was the daughter of a farmer. Robert's two children from a previous marriage were already growing up in the family, as well as the eldest daughter Chrissy and son Isaac. Mary was considered an ugly girl, but she was smart and loving.

la read. Robert Evans understood that neither external data nor a dowry could provide his daughter with an advantageous marriage and a worthy place in society, so he decided to give her a good education. From the age of five to sixteen, the girl studied in closed schools.

Christina Evans died in 1836. Mary took over the entire household, she did not part with her father until his death in 1849. The girl was allowed to use the magnificent library of Archery Hall, and she perfectly studied the books of the classics, including in Latin and Greek. In 1840, after her brother's marriage, Mary Evans and her father moved to the town of Foulshill, near Coventry. There she met the philanthropist manufacturer Charles Breuil, who maintained extensive communication with philosophers, writers, liberal religious figures, in particular, with Robert Owen, David Strauss, Ludwig Feuerbach.

In 1846, Mary Evans anonymously published her first book, a translation of Strauss' Life of Christ. After the death of her father, she traveled around Europe for some time, then came to London, where she settled in the house of her old acquaintance from Coventry, the publisher John Chapman. He published the literary and philosophical journal Westminster Review, and after long

Chapman's persuasion and persuasion Mary, who began to call herself Marian, took the post of assistant editor in the magazine without pay. Simultaneously with the enormous work that had to be done in the magazine, Marian was translating Feuerbach's book, The Essence of Christianity. This translation was published in 1854 and was the only work that Marian Evans published under her real name. In the same year, she met the philosopher and critic George Henry Lewis. Despite the fact that Lewis was married to Agnes Jervis and had three children, he entered into an agreement with his wife on mutual freedom; Agnes' four children, whose father was the editor of the Daily Telegraph, Thornton Hart, were formally considered the children of Lewis, and divorce under the laws of that time was almost impossible. Although extramarital affairs were not uncommon in Victorian England, and they were quite common among writers and journalists, an open relationship was considered a challenge to society. The novel by Marian Evans and George Lewis began in 1854 and marked a new stage in her literary work. In the first months of their joint trip to Weimar, Marian completed the translation of Baruch Spinoza's Ethics and began writing fiction.

In 1857, in the Blackwood Mag.

ezin" began to publish a cycle of stories entitled "Scenes from the Life of the Clergy", the author of which was George Elliot. The choice of a male pseudonym was not accidental - at that time, as to this day, "ladies'" prose is a priori considered as a frivolous entertaining reading; except In addition, Marian did not want to draw the attention of readers to her person and the peculiarities of her personal life.In 1859, Marian wrote her first big novel called "Adam Bede".The background for this book was the time familiar to her from the stories of her father - the end of the 18th century. was extremely popular, and to this day is considered the best English novel in the "country" style.This book was admired by Queen Victoria, who commissioned a series of paintings based on "Adam Beed" by the artist Edward Corbould.

The next novel, The Mill on the Floss (1860), described the events that took place during the youth of the writer herself, and the heroine of this work, Maggie Tulliver, in many ways resembled the young Mary Evans. On the title page of The Mill on the Floss was a dedication: "To my beloved husband, George Henry Lewis, I dedicate my third book, written in the sixth year of our life together." The following year, the writer published her last "autobiographical" work.

eating Silas Marner. In 1863, Marian Evans wrote the historical novel Romola, set in Renaissance Florence, and in 1866, the poignant socio-critical narrative Felix Holt, the Radical. This was followed by the poem "Spanish Gypsy", written in blank verse, but she, like the poetic experiments of the young Mary Evans, was not successful. But the novel "Middlemarch" (1870), showing the story of the moral rebirth of heroes, became her best book and made the glory of English literature. The last work of the writer was "Daniel Deronda", written in 1876.

The success of the George Elliot novels softened the public reaction to the union between Lewis and Evans, especially since their relationship had stood the test of time; in 1877, the writer was even introduced to Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Louise. Lewis died in 1877. For two years, Marian prepared his last work, Life and Mind, for publication, and in May 1880 she again challenged society: she married an old family friend, John Cross, who was fifteen years younger than her and was depressed after the death of her mother. However, the marriage was short: in December 1880, the writer died. Her ashes are buried in Highgate Cemetery, next to the grave of Henry Lewis.