George Eliot is so famous today as a Victorian novelist that it is always a surprise to discover that she was 36 years old before she first turned her attention to fictional writing. Prior to this time she had contributed numerous articles to the Westminster Review and other periodicals, translated innovative theological works by Spinoza, Strauss, and Feuerbach, and mastered the sociological thought of Herbert Spencer – all under her real name, Marian Evans. A latecomer to the world of fiction she was, and would ever remain, particularly self-conscious about publishing creative and original writing and it took considerable encouragement from her partner, G. H. Lewes, to get her stories written and printed. A skilful literary agent

This article in full comprises 2062 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 30 October 2002

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Scenes of Clerical Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 October 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2231, accessed 9 February 2010.]