Selected Works by George Eliot - old hardcover

George Eliot is not only one of the world's greatest women novelists, she is one of the world's great novelists. In accomplishment and influence, her artistry ranks with Dickens or Flaubert. Her critical and commercial success as a "serious" novelist especially in nineteenth-century Victorian England testifies to the distinction of her achievement.

Mary Ann Evans was born November 22, 1819, in the rural midlands of England. From a simple country-girl she became one of the most accomplished intellectuals and writers of the Victorian era. She was also involved in an "unconventional" relationship with George Lewes, a married man, with whom she lived from 1854 until his death twenty-four years later. The complicated and difficult situation for Eliot, who was ostracized by proper society, including her own family. She published her novels under the pseudonym "George Eliot" to protect her work from the prejudice of a public that did not consider her respectable. This alienation took a toll upon her, even after her success as a novelist, when there was no longer any need to disguise her identity.

This alienation is embodied in the hero of one of her finest and most popular novels, Silas Marner, which was published in 1861. It is the touching story of a weaver who is falsely accused of a crime he did not commit. Turned out from the tight-knit religious community to which he belonged, stripped of everything he holds dear, he becomes a hermit who finds solace only in the gold he hoards. When that gold is stolen, in its place appears as golden-haired child. Silas's love for Eppie, as he names her, helps him regain his humanity. It is truly a heartwarming novel.