She visited Italy in 1860 and again in 1861 before she brought out in the Cornhill Magazine (1862–63) her historical romance Romola, a story of Savonarola. Three novels of provincial life followed- Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Silas Marner (1861). Although not a popular success, the work was well received by literary critics, particularly Dickens and Thackeray. In 1856, Mary Ann began Scenes of Clerical Life, a series of realistic sketches first appearing in Blackwood's Magazine under the pseudonym Lewes chose for her, George Eliot. Throughout his life Lewes encouraged Evans in her literary career indeed, it is possible that without him Evans, subject to periods of depression and in constant need of reassurance, would not have written a word.

Lewes, which she regarded as marriage, though it involved social ostracism and could have no legal sanction because Lewes's estranged wife was living. In 1854 she began a long and happy union with G. After her father's death she became subeditor (1851) of the Westminster Review, contributed articles, and came to know many of the literary people of the day. Her early schooling was supplemented by assiduous reading, and the study of languages led to her first literary work, Life of Jesus (1846), a translation from the German of D.

One of the great English novelists, she was reared in a strict atmosphere of evangelical Protestantism but eventually rebelled and renounced organized religion totally.

of Mary Ann or Marian Evans, 1819–80, English novelist, b.

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