George Eliot

George Eliot (1819-1880) was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, an English novelist, essayist, translator, and one of the great moral psychologists of fiction. Her major works include Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda. George Eliot matters because she expanded the English novel into a form of ethical and social understanding, tracing how private choices, community pressures, sympathy, and self-deception shape lives. Middlemarch is widely regarded as one of the finest novels in English for its range, intelligence, and compassion. Eliot also translated important works of German theology and philosophy, deepening her intellectual authority. Her quotes endure because they ask what people owe one another, how character is formed, and how unhistoric acts contribute to the world's growing good.

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