By What Name Is Mary Ann Evans Better Known?

Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans is the real name of the writer known as George Eliot. Born in 1819, Evans was the daughter of a strictly religious father, and began by following his example, but by 1854 she had become an atheist and begun a relationship with a married man, GH Lewes, which was to last until his death. Her father and brother both refused all contact with her as long as she remained with Lewes, which was a lifelong sorrow to her. (In her second novel, "The Mill on the.Floss," Maggie Tulliver's desperate struggles to gain her family's love and approval are based on the author's own youth.)
In 1857, Blackwood's Magazine began to publish stories and articles by a mysterious author called George Eliot. These were widely praised, as were "his" novels, (among them "Adam Bede" and "Middlemarch" and there was much speculation as to who the writer might be. For years she led a double life as a famous, faceless author and, in private, the "mistress" of Lewes. Eventually the truth became known; in fact in her last years Eliot became quite a public figure. She also acquired a belated respectability (in Victorian terms) through her marriage, after Lewes' death, to author John Cross. She died seven months later in 1880.

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