ELIOT, GEORGE. - Pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, English writer, b. at Arbury Farm (Warwickshire) on 22 Nov. 1819, d. at Chelsea on 22 Dec. 1880. After a strict religious education, she lost her faith following the reading of the works of Ch. Hennel and of the early English positivists, among whom G. H. Lewes shone, with whom she had a long illegitimate relationship, much criticized by Victorian society.
The translations of Strauss's Life of Jesus (1844-46) and of Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity (1854) and a demanding collaboration with the Westminster Review, which grouped together the rationalist writers, set her on the path to writing. She made her debut in fiction in 1858 with Scenes from clerical life, and immediately revealed herself as one of the best English writers. The novels Adam Bede, The mill on the floss, Silas Marner, gather the impressions of her youth in Warwickshire and represent with great effectiveness the life of the English middle class in the small provincial settings. With Romola, a Florentine novel of the times of Savonarola, E. attempted the historical novel. The last novels: Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, attest to a progressive stiffening of her moral prejudices.
Bibliography7 worksEditions: Opera completa, London 1878-86 and 1901-1902; Romola, with introduction and notes by G. Blagi, ibid. 1907. Studies: Life of G. E.,
BIBL.: Editions: Opera completa, London 1878-86 and 1901-1902; Romola, with introduction and notes by G. Blagi, ibid. 1907. Studies: Life of G. E., edited by J. W. Cross, 3 vols., ibid. 1884-86; L. Stephens, G. E., ibid. 1902; G. Negri, G. E., Milan 1903; E. Haldane, G. E. and her times, London 1927; E. J. Pond, Les idées morales et religieuses de G. E., Paris 1927; B. C. Williams, G. E., New York 1936.
Donini, Filippo. “Eliot, george.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, coll. 244–245. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/eliot-george.
MLA
Donini, Filippo. “Eliot, george.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 244–245. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/eliot-george.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_eliot_george,
author = {Donini, Filippo},
title = {Eliot, george},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {244--245},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/eliot-george}
}
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