Middlemarch was published in instalments between 1871-72, and Eliot’s last novel, Daniel Deronda, was published in 1876. Eliot published her first short story at the age of 37 and her first novel, Adam Bede, two years later in 1859. This arrangement was the source of significant scandal at the time. Lewes was in an open marriage, and he and Eliot soon became a couple, traveling to Germany together as a “honeymoon” and living as husband and wife, despite the fact that Lewes never divorced his previous wife. She spent time living alone in Geneva before moving to London, where she worked as the editor of a progressive literary journal named The Westminster Review. She began translating works of German theology into English and publishing short reviews in periodicals. As a young woman she became socially involved with a group of agnostics and political radicals. After this point she continued to read widely, the results of which are palpable in her writing, which is intellectually sophisticated and filled with references to a diverse array of knowledge. She received an unusually extensive education for a girl at the time, although only up until the age of 16. George Eliot was the daughter of an estate manager in Warwickshire.

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