George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was the daughter of an estate manager and his second wife, Christiana Pearson. She added a new dimension to the novel, developing and enlarging on the work done by earlier women novelists. These female writers produced well-constructed, interesting plots, with excellent portrayals of character, and stories with convincing and varied backgrounds.
George Eliot's work uses all these things to varying degrees, but she brought an intellectual approach to her tales. She did not begin writing novels until she was nearly forty and she had time to observe her fellow human beings and to develop a firm philosophy of life. Her own nature was serious and there is a purpose, even urgency, in all her work. Her best work is a blend of imaginative insight and sound reason.
Stowell, H.E. Quill, pens and petticoats: a portrait of women of letters. Wayland Publishers, 1970, pp. 145-146.
"There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)