George Eliot (redirected from Marian Evans)

Eliot, George 

(real name, Mary Ann Evans). Born Nov. 22, 1819, on the Arbury estate, Warwickshire; died Dec. 22, 1880, in London. English writer.

Under the influence of various schools of philosophy, especially the positivism of A. Comte and H. Spencer, Eliot adopted the idea of the gradual evolution of society and the harmony of the classes. In the collection of stories Scenes of Clerical Life (vols. 1–2, 1858), which consists of “Amos Barton” (Russian translation, 1860), “Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story” (Russian translation, 1859), and “Janet’s Repentance” (Russian translation, 1860), she dealt with the social and moral conflicts in a village in the English countryside. Democratic sympathies were also manifested in the novel Adam Bede (vols. 1–3, 1859; Russian translation, 1859).

Although in some respects Eliot’s works exhibit a tendency toward naturalism, in the novel The Mill on the Floss (vols. 1–3, 1860; Russian translation, 1860) she presented a typical picture of the life of the provincial petite bourgeoisie. In the novel Silas Marner (1861; Russian translation, 1959) she contrasted altruism to the egoistic morality of the wealthy. Eliot’s novels, including Felix Holt the Radical (vols. 1–3, 1866; Russian translation, 1867) and Middtemarch (vols. 1–4, 1871–72; Russian translation, 1873), were popular in Russia and were highly regarded by N. G. Chernyshevskii, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. S. Turgenev, and L. N. Tolstoy.

WORKS

The Complete Works, vols. 1–10. London-New York, 1908.
The George Eliot Letters, vols. 1–7. New Haven-London, 1954–55.
In Russian translation:
Mel’nitsa na Flosse. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 2, fasc. 2. Moscow, 1955.
Ivasheva, V. V. Angliiskii realisticheskii roman XIX v. v ego sovremennom zvuchanii. Moscow, 1974.
Allen, W. George Eliot. London [1965]
George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. London [1971].

A. A. BEL’SKII