George Eliot

1819–1880 (age 61)

Novelist

Biography

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, one of the most accomplished novelists of the Victorian era. Born in 1819, she adopted her masculine pseudonym to ensure her work would be taken seriously in a male-dominated literary world. Her novels, including Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, and Adam Bede, are celebrated for their psychological depth, moral complexity, and penetrating observations of human nature.

Eliot's intellectual range was extraordinary; she was fluent in multiple languages, well-versed in philosophy and theology, and deeply engaged with contemporary scientific and social thought. Her novels explored themes of personal development, social responsibility, and the inner lives of ordinary people with unprecedented sophistication. She died in 1880, leaving behind a literary legacy that continues to influence writers and readers worldwide.