(1819 – 1880)
“It is never too late to become what you might have been”
– George Eliot
First dilemma of the day – shall we call her by her real name of Mary Ann Evans? Known by her pen name George Eliot, she was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era in the 19th century. Using a male pseudonym ensured her works were taken seriously in an era when female authors were usually associated with romantic novels. She wrote seven novels over her lifetime, mostly notably The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Middlemarch (1872). Middlemarch in particular has been heralded as one of the greatest literary works ever written.
I can’t claim to have read any of her works, but I was interested in reading that she met and moved in with her partner George Henry Lewes, despite the fact he was already married and living with his wife and children. Scandal! Nevertheless, she lived with him until his death in 1878. After that she married a friend, John Cross, who was 20 years her junior. If all this happened in a TV soap opera you wouldn’t believe it.
The original statue stands in Nuneaton town centre, with a second bronze cast unveiled at George Eliot Hospital ten years later.
WomenstatuesUK 