Life of George Eliot

Nancy Henry is Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She is the author of George Eliot and the British Empire (2002), and The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot (2008), and co-editor of Victorian Investments: New Perspectives on Finance and Culture (2009). She is also the recipient of a 2014/15 NEH Fellowship.

• List of Illustrations ixAcknowledgments xiList of Abbreviations xiii1 The History of a Writer: George Eliot and Biographies 12 Early Years: 1819–50 223 London and Lewes: 1850–4 644 Marian Lewes and George Eliot: 1855–60 955 Silas Marner and Romola: 1860–4 1206 Felix Holt and The Spanish Gypsy: 1865–9 1537 Middlemarch: 1870–2 1818 Daniel Deronda: 1873–6 2079 Impressions of Theophrastus Such: 1877–9 23510 The Final Years: 1879 to Cross’s Life 255Bibliography 271Index 287

“It is no surprise that this book is now available in paperback: compact and hugely suggestive, bringing us new things to think about, showing us old myths to discard; in its productive disruption of commonplace fact/fiction approaches to the life and works mode, it enriches and enlarges our understanding of the writer and her writings.”  (Cercles, 1 June 2015)