The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-10-02
GEORE ELLIOTT AND HER WORK
The true Story Of Her very Remark
abe Life.
A .Strange Platoa,c Nar11"ge-Uotc SIZE
Has Euyned a Quarter 81 q Million Of
DoHars Ly her Fsn-Lhr -Mtrcei-
LOHs Mind.

LONDON, August 30.-It seems to be
generally understood-indecd those IN Il
POSITION 10 be fully informed state it as a
positive fact-that Marian G. Evans, better
known as George Elliott, has published her
last book, and has, so far as the public is
concerned, actually withdrawn from lite
rarv life. If this be true, it is a very i'm
portant literary event, for she is incontes-
tably the greatest living writer of fiction in
this, or probably in any country. She IS
often spoken OF as the most gifted of wo-
men novelists, which is more than unjust
il is absurd-since there is no woman to
compare with her. and since genius has
never been and never should be considered
~sexually. She is a master, and a mighty
one. Her novels are totally unlike novels
generally in spirit, aim, character and
scope. To mention them in connection
with the f%ictions Of Mary Braddon, Mrs.
Henry Wood, 'Ouida," Mrs. Beecher
Stowe, Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis, or
any other English or American feminine
author, is little less than idle. : < :
She was 81 when she published, under the
signature of George Elliott, a series of
stories in BlucL7cood, bearing the title of
''Scenes of Clerical Life They were
marked 10y a fresh, racy, vigorous style,
and speedily drew attention. for they pro
claimed the advent of a new novelist of
signal ability.
The signature was generally understood
to be a pseudonym, and great curiosity was
felt to learn whom it concerned. Was it Il
man or woman? Most persons decided
that it was a man; that no woman had such
grasp Or strength; that the dictiOn was un-
questionably masculine. The year follow
ing the admiration for George Elliot great
ly increased by the appearance, in num-
bers, of adam Bede," which gained vast
success in the magazine. and had an i'm
mense sale when put between covers. The
story placed her among the first novelists
of the day, and rendered George Elliott a
familiar name throughout the United King
dom, and introduced her, | believe, to your
side of the water. The work was in due
time translated into French and German.
and has since been lone into Spanish,
Italian, Dutch, Russian, and other modern
tongues. 1t brought her the acquaintance
of a number of literary men (she had
always been shy and had seduously avoided
society," among them Herbert Spencer,
George Henry Lewes, Dickens, Adolphus
Trollope, T~hackcray, Matthew Arnold,
Wilkie Collins, Leslie Stephen, and Charles
Reade. Spencer and Lewes were particu-
larly interested in her, and a close intellec-
tual friendship sprang up between them.
Spencer informally instructed her in his
system of philosophy, and Lewes added
largely to her stock of culture by his own
diversified attainments. Spencer, albeit a
philosophic bachelor,
WISHED tt MARRY HER,
it is said; but she declined his proposal.
Lewes was strongly drawn to her through
intellectual sympathy, far more so than he
had ever been or believed he ever could be
to amp human being. He said that thev
needed one another; that he felt he could
help her as much as she could help him );
that their minds were correlated and mu-
tually responsive. Lewes would been ONLY
too happy to make her his wife. But there
was an obstacle In the way Of their nup-
tia:s then or at any other definite time.
There was a Mr.. Lewes already, and what
was worse, although she and Lewes did not
live together, she could not be legally set
aside. Why? He had married years be-
fore a woman who had very little in COM
mon with him, and, as he learned too late,
with whom he had still less. He, being OF
stole mould, bore the misfortune uncom-
plainingly, trying to soften the unavoida-
bic d~isharmOny as much as he could. She
rebeled violently against her indiscreet &C
ceptance. Unable to be fond of him. she
she was so much repealed that she drove
him by her expression of repugnance we'll
nigh distracted; for he, like most men Of
artistic temperament, was extremely sensi-
tive, and capable of great spiritual suffer-
ing.
After two or three years of discord, she
met another man, who was very attractive
to her; she was then handsome and had an
attractive figure, and she was Sd moved by
his attractions that
SHE RAN AWAY WITH HIM.
Towoc uac rrooflu Wildwood I Il
been orthodox, he would have thanked the
Lord for his deliverance. As he was a ration
alist, he regarded his wife's eIopement as a
happy coincidence. Mrs. LeWes's lover
presently grew tired Of her and abandoned
her. Then she repented and sought her
husband with pathetic contrition and plen-
teous tears. He was generous, chivalrous,