Silas Marner

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans Cross) was born on November 22, 1819, at Arbury Farm, Warwickshire, England. She received an ordinary education and, upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, embarked on a program of independent study to further her intellectual growth. In 1841 she moved to Coventry with her father, where the influence of "skeptics and rationalists" swayed her from an intense religious devotion to an eventual break with the church. The small legacy she received upon her father's death, in 1849, allowed her the freedom to pursue her literary inclinations. In 1851, she became the assistant editor of the Westminster Review, a position she held for three years. In 1854 came the fated meeting with George Henry Lewes, the gifted editor of The Leader, who was to become her adviser and companion for the next twenty-four years. Her first book, Scenes of Clerical Life (1857), was followed by Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Silas Marner (1861). Her next two novels, largely considered to be her masterpieces, were published in installments: Middlemarch (1871-1872) and Daniel Deronda (1874-1876). The death of Lewes, in 1878, left her grief-stricken and lonely. On May 6, 1880, she married John Cross, a friend of long standing. After a brief illness, she died on December 22 of that year, in London. Frederick R. Karl, Professor of English at New York University, has written several biographies, most recently George Eliot: Voice of a Century.Eliot, George is the author of 'Silas Marner ', published 1999 under ISBN 9780451527219 and ISBN 0451527216.