Eminent Women Series

EDITED BY JOHN H. INGRAM

GEORGE ELIOT

[All Rights Reserved]

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GEORGE ELIOT


BY MATHILDE BLIND

LONDON:
W. H. ALLEN AND CO.
13, WATERLOO PLACE
1883.

[All Rights Reserved]

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LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

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PREFATORY NOTE.

Detailed accounts of George Eliot's life have hitherto been singularlyscanty. In the dearth of published materials a considerable portion ofthe information contained in this biographical study has, necessarily,been derived from private sources. In visiting the places connected withGeorge Eliot's early life, I enjoyed the privilege of meeting herbrother, Mr. Isaac Evans, and was also fortunate in gleaning many acharacteristic fact and trait from old people in the neighbourhood,contemporaries of her father, Mr. Robert Evans. For valuable help informing an idea of the growth of George Eliot's mind, my warm thanks areespecially due to her oldest friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray, andMiss Hennell of Coventry. Miss Jenkins, the novelist's schoolfellow, andMrs. John Cash, also generously afforded me every assistance in their power.

A great part of the correspondence in the present volume has nothitherto appeared in print, and has been kindly placed at my disposal byMrs. Bray, Mrs. Gilchrist, Mrs. Clifford, Miss Marks, Mr. William[Pg iv] M.Rossetti, and the late James Thomson. I have also quoted from lettersaddressed to Miss Phelps which were published in Harper's Magazine ofMarch 1882, and from one or two other articles that have appeared inperiodical publications. For permission to make use of thiscorrespondence my thanks are due to Mr. C. L. Lewes.

By far the most exhaustive published account of George Eliot's life andwritings, and the one of which I have most freely availed myself, is Mr.Call's admirable essay in the Westminster Review of July 1881.Although this, as indeed every other article on the subject, statesGeorge Eliot's birthplace incorrectly, it contains many important datanot mentioned elsewhere. To the article on George Eliot in Blackwood'sMagazine for February 1881, I owe many interesting particulars, chieflyconnected with the beginning of George Eliot's literary career. Amongstother papers consulted may be mentioned a noticeable one by Miss Simcoxin the Contemporary Review, and an appreciative notice by Mr.Frederick Myers in Scribner's Magazine, as well as articles inHarper's Magazine of May 1881, and The Century of August 1882. Twoquaint little pamphlets, 'Seth Bede: the Methody,' and 'George Eliot inDerbyshire,' by Guy Roslyn, although full of inaccuracies, have alsofurnished some curious items of information.

Mathilde Blind.

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CONTENTS.