In any age, Mary Ann Evans would have been extraordinary, but in the Victorian era she really challenged conventional norms. To be born a female with a formidable brain and an ugly face was a terrible handicap in Victorian England. Mary Ann/Marian/Mrs Lewes/Mrs Cross and George Eliot (this remarkable woman went by many different names throughout her life) shocked society by living with a married man, was cut off by her father for her rejection of religious faith, and by her adored brother for her scandalous liaison. And yet she bore it all stoically and turned to writing as an escape.

Too clever for a Victorian girl, Mary Ann taught herself several languages, was a talented pianist, became a loving stepmother to the sons of the man she loved, and she gradually won over the approval of society.

Mary Ann Evans eventually gained fame as George Eliot (even the Queen read and loved the novels of George Eliot) and through her efforts made more money than any other woman of the Victorian age. But her life was a constant struggle for love, acceptance and intellectual freedom and as she tried to find her true place in the world, she changed her name to eventually become George Eliot. By her pen, George Eliot earned more than did any other woman in Victorian England.

Learn more about George Eliot’s life story, her painful struggles to find love in spite of her lack of beauty, her beginnings as an author, and then her marriage to a man much younger than herself (oh, I’d really love to know what happened on her disastrous honeymoon!).