by George Eliot (Marian Evans)

The Mill on the Floss was the second novel Marian Evans published under the pseudonym George Eliot. Born in 1819 to a prosperous estate manager, Marian Evans spent her youth much as her heroine did, in reading and outdoor activities. In 1850 Evans moved to London where she worked as a translator and editor, and fell in love with the writer and editor George Henry Lewes, a married man. Contemporary marriage law prevented Lewes from obtaining a divorce from his adulterous wife; the law held that, having condoned the adultery previously, he now had no grounds for divorce. Knowing this, Evans and Lewes pursued their relationship anyway. The two eloped to the Continent in 1854, then lived together as husband and wife until Lewes’s death in 1878. During her life with Lewes, Evans suffered the disapproval of her...