Talk:George Eliot

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:16, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Did she have a sex change?
I don't claim to be an MD or PhD but unless I'm seriously confused, Mary Evans did not have a sex change, so why does this article refer to *her* as *him*? For the life of me I can't figure out what sort of statement the wiki-author was trying to make. I'm tempted to just go in and change all the hers to hims - since every other article on George Elliot I've read referred to her as a woman using a pen name. What's confusing about that? Please you intellectuals, shame the devil and tell the truth. But in all seriousness, let's not be silly here - unless there's a real reason, let's update this article, if she indeed did not have that piddly little Y chromosome.

I see that it was only the most recent addition that added this foolishness about poor Mary being a man - she apparently was self-conscious enough about her appearance without being called a man long after he death. I respectfully made her a woman again by reverting to the previous version of this wiki. Wow, the power of the net! Sphinxcat (talk) 03:55, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Reasons for penname
I read in a newspaper some time between 1988 and 1990 that the reason why Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot was not, as if often supposed, to make her writings more heard by adopting a male name, but to disguise the fact that she had an affair with a man. This article, early on, does refer to her affair with Lewes, but still repeats the popular but possibly erroneous belief that the reason for her penname was to adopt a male persona. I am not a George Eliot expert,but if any one is - for example, some one who has studied the biographies of her carefully or maybe even someone who has written a biography - and can separate popular belief from reality here, that will be most appreciated. Many thanks, ACEOREVIVED (talk) 22:14, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Section formatting issue
The "External links" section appears subordinate to the "Further reading" section, which is not typical of a Wikipedia article. I don't know how to correct it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.211.196.76 (talk) 23:01, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Dangling Modifier
Under the "first publication" section, there is a sentence which states "the daughter of Queen Victoria, who was an avid reader." Could you clarify who was the avid reader, the daughter or the Queen? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.28.108.180 (talk) 10:53, 26 March 2012 (UTC)


 * It was the queen. The ''The National Dictionary of Biography says "Although it was not until 1877 that Marian was introduced to royalty in the person of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise, the queen herself had read all of George Eliot's novels, admiring Adam Bede so much that in 1861 she had commissioned Edward Henry Corbould to paint two scenes from the novel—one of Dinah Morris preaching, the other of Hetty Sorrel making butter in the dairy." (From the 'later works' section, second para). I have tweaked the WP article to this effect. Span (talk) 11:53, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

This word is POV
From the last sentence of Early life and education section: "...NARROW low church Anglican family, but...". That causes Wikipedia to be taking a negative position on Eliot's family. If Eliot considered her family life narrow, we could put quotes around the narrow, but should have a citation for it also. Otherwise the narrow should be removed.76.218.104.210 (talk) 18:16, 24 January 2014 (UTC)


 * ✅. Thanks for the alert.--JayJasper (talk) 18:22, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Mary Anne Evans
As it is now the page is listed under the name George Eliot with 'Mary Ann Evans' and 'Mary Anne Evans' redirecting to the page George Eliot. This would make perfect sense if the page was limited simply to her works but since it talks of her history outside of her authorship it makes more sense for the page to be titled with her legal name and for Wikipedia to re-direct searches for 'George Eliot' to this page. I understand that 'George Eliot' is a more well known name but putting in either name directs you to the page so I can't understand how it would affect the amount of hits the page receives. The only people who knew her by the name 'George' were fans and critics. Her family and lovers certainly didn't call her 'George' and I can't see any reason why we should refer to her by her pseudonym rather than her legal one. Thank you for your time! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.31.88.177 (talk) 01:57, 25 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia's policy states that articles should use the most common name as the title, even if it's not the official name. The vast majority of people know this woman as George Eliot, regardless of what her family and lovers called her. Zacwill16 (talk) 13:18, 29 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Re the recent revert (to Middlemarch article): isn't about time this author's birth name is used, with a link from George Eliot? Rwood128 (talk) 18:05, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on George Eliot. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20150322162719/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/projects/eliot/middlemarch/bio.html to http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/projects/eliot/middlemarch/bio.html#mary

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 06:52, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Scenes of Clerical Life
This book has been omitted from the list of works. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.62.232.103 (talk) 15:25, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

George Eliot motorcycle
I have removed the claim that the George Eliot motorcycle was named after the author. No source was given, and it appears it's really named after the engineer's father, not the author. Huon (talk) 17:33, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Adaptations
Please include a section on film/television adaptations on George Eliot's works. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sparuk (talk • contribs) 14:29, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

Journalism Career
There could be more Information of her Journalism career added. Mary Anne Evans changed her name to Marian Evans after moving to London and took lodgings in the Strand whilst working for the Westminster Review. The Journal was seen as Radical at the time and very Left-wing. She became the editor of the paper in 1851 after joining just a year earlier. Evans' writings for the paper were comments on her views of society and the Victorian way of Thinking.

Anna Foulds (talk) 19:25, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

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There is a link to a John Cross disambiguation page (but not the right John Cross?)
I see that there is a link to a John Cross disambiguation page (but not to the right John Cross I conjecture based on a quick review of the 19th century entries). Should the link be removed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bikestats (talk • contribs) 10:35, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Her education should include Bedford College, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London
She was an alumnus of Royal Holloway, University of London (which merged with Bedford College some decades ago). It is surprising that this salient and significant fact is missing from an encyclopedia.

She is cited as an alumnus in many places, e.g.


 * https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/our-alumni/famous-alumni/
 * 'One of the first Bedford College students was George Eliot (christened Mary Ann Evans), who is justly famous for the novels Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Her insightful psychological novels anticipated the narrative methods of modern literature, prompting D.H. Lawrence to write: "It was really George Eliot who… started putting action inside."'
 * https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/english/about-us/alumni/
 * '... One of our earliest alumnae was the novelist George Eliot, and today our graduates include yet more literary figures and distinguished academics, broadcasters and journalism professionals.'
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Alumni_of_Bedford_College_(London)
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_College,_London#Notable_alumni
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Holloway,_University_of_London#Notable_alumni — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.175.56.65 (talk) 02:58, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

George Eliot
What is her key words? 86.26.146.37 (talk) 20:47, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Key words 86.26.146.37 (talk) 20:48, 29 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Do you mean the type of key word lists that certain info boxes have? SpookiePuppy (talk) 20:13, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

Mary Ann Evans
It seems there are a number of people called Mary Ann/e Evans, including Mary Anne Disraeli (nee Evans) and Fearless Nadia (the stage name of an Australian known as Mary Anne Evans). While the English Author/George Eliot is by far the most viewed (40k views compared to 2k a piece), perhaps this means the disambiguation could be adjusted. Either a page such as Mary Anne Evans (disambiguation); or perhaps simply using Mary Ann and adding Disraeli and the Australian to it, a previously existing disambiguation page. Techhead7890 (talk) 06:36, 18 February 2024 (UTC)


 * There is Mary Evans (disambiguation), and I have just added Fearless Nadia there.
 * The note at the top of this article doesn't seem quite what we need. Perhaps something like:
 * Mgp28 (talk) 09:43, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
 * In fact I have done this. Obviously if people object it can be reverted. Mgp28 (talk) 09:46, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Looks perfect to me. Well solved! Techhead7890 (talk) 06:32, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Looks perfect to me. Well solved! Techhead7890 (talk) 06:32, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

How did she get married before she was born?
"In May 1800, eighteen months after Lewes's death, George Eliot married her long time friend, John Cross, a man much younger than she, and she changed her name to Mary Ann Cross."

Weird. How did she get married 19 years before she was born? 2600:1700:BC01:9B0:742D:F96A:1F7F:462B (talk) 23:20, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

chintzy
Does anyone have access to The Letters of George Eliot (Haight, 1958)? In the entry for "chintzy" the OED cites a letter from 18th Sept 1851 (vol 1, p362): "The effect is chintzy and would be unbecoming." I've found a few volumes on-line, but not volume 1. I'm trying to improve the reference on the chintz page. CorsacFoxWiki (talk) 13:44, 14 July 2024 (UTC)


 * Here? 86.187.234.103 (talk) 03:31, 17 July 2024 (UTC)