Monday, October 11, 2010

Assignment #1: Five interesting facts about George Elliot

1) Eliot's scandalous personal life clouded her reputation even after her death. Despite her literary achievements, Eliot was not allowed a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner. She finally received recognition there in 1980, one hundred years after her death.


2) When Eliot's first novel became a huge success, several people claimed to have written the novel. Eventually, Eliot came forward to state that she is the rightful author.


3) When the reading public discovered that Eliot was a woman, they didn’t know whether to condemn her for being an arrogant woman who thought she could write...or praise her for writing so well.


4) It has been suggested that Herbert Spencer, a famed British philosopher, had an affair with Eliot and then broke up with her. Afterward, he wrote an essay on the repugnancy of ugly women. All of Eliot’s friends knew whom he was writing about.


5) For over thirty years, Eliot lived with philosopher George Henry Lewes, although they never married and Lewes already had a wife.



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