The Life of George Eliot

The two established a home together, and in the late 1850’s, Eliot began to write fiction as a relaxation from more serious literary work. However in November 1878, Lewes died and Eliot brought out her last work, a book of essays which was written prior to his death. Three successful novels were published before Silas Marner, which was written in 1861. While she was producing these great works she was sustained and stimulated by Lewes. Miss Evans instead became a freethinker and published her first literary work, Leben Jesu, and unorthodox version on the life of Jesus. She hid her identity for many years, and even after admitting authorship she continued to use her pen name, for it was better known than her real name. Cross, whom she would marry in May 1880. She died that same year on December 22, 1880 (Davenport). Silas Marner, Adam Bede, Scenes from Clerical Life, and The Mill on the Floss were considered by critics to be her best work, as they all reflect on the Warwickshire countryside and the vivid impressions of her youth (World Book, 6: 185). Lewes, the philosopher and literary critic, had a wife living whom he could not divorce, but, defying the conventions of the time, Lewes and Miss Evans entered a relationship that was a marriage in all but law (Davenport). Bray had written many philosophical inquiries that challenged the beliefs of Christianity. She met and fell in love with a married man, George Henry Lewes.