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Date of birth
She was born on the 22nd November 1819 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. -
Her first job
Her mother died and Evans (then 16) returned home to act as housekeeper. -
Moved home
When she was 21, her brother Isaac married and took over the family home, so Evans and her father moved to Foleshill near Coventry. The closeness to Coventry society brought new influences, most notably those of Charles and Cara Bray. -
Her first written task
Her first major literary work was an English translation of Strauss's Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet as The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (1846), which she completed after it had been left incomplete by another member of the "Rosehill Circle". -
A change of life and name
On her return to England the following year, she moved to London with the intent of becoming a writer, and she began referring to herself as Marian Evans -
Period: to
Relationship with Ewes
The philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes met Evans in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. -
Her first novel as George Eliot
Evans's first complete novel was Adam Bede. It was an instant success, and prompted yet more intense curiosity as to the author's identity. This public interest subsequently led to Marian Evans Lewes's acknowledgment that it was she who stood behind the pseudonym George Eliot. -
Period: to
More George Eliot's novels...
She wrote 'Silas Marner' (1861) and 'Romola' (1863) soon followed, and later 'Felix Holt, the Radical' (1866) and her most acclaimed novel, 'Middlemarch' (1871–1872). -
Her last novel
Her last novel was Daniel Deronda, published in 1876, after which she and Lewes moved to Witley, Surrey. -
New marriage, new name
On 16 May 1880 Eliot married John Walter Cross and again changed her name, this time to Mary Ann Cross. -
Her death
They moved to a new house in Chelsea, but Eliot fell ill with a throat infection. This, coupled with the kidney disease with which she had been afflicted for several years, led to her death on 22 December 1880 at the age of 61.
