
George Eliot
Writer and free-thinker George Eliot (Mary Ann, later Marian, Evans) is one of the most admired Victorian novelists. Frequently adopting religious and social themes in her writing, she perfected the art of characterisation, paving the way for the ensuing ‘modern‘ novel. Though scourged during her lifetime for her relationship with the married writer George Henry Lewes, she is now one of the best-loved writers of her time, with Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner counting among her most popular novels.