George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life

Nathan Uglow (Trinity All Saints, Leeds)
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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, it was he who arranged for John Blackwood to publish…

2062 words

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Scenes of Clerical Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2231, accessed 12 December 2024.]

2231 Scenes of Clerical Life 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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