New-York tribune., 1880-06-20
" GEORGE ELIOT."
A SKETCH BY ROBERT T.. FRANCILLON.
now MARY ANNE EvANs BEGAN To wKIrE-rHE
sURRoUNDINGs or HER Youth.

HOW MARY ANNE EVANS BlGAN 10 NlHIE-lHE
SURROUNDINGS or HER Youth.
From The Pen.
Those persons whose memories of their own time
reach back Tor just twcntY-Onr years, can recall Il
romance of authorship unPqnallcd SINCE the puhlca-
tion of f"Wayrriy" Brilliantly successful novels are
certainly not uncommon things. Bat work Ol tie
tIon which, even under the most favorable clrctn-
stances, takes the whole reading world br storm,
and as n great event of it's year, makes eager read
crs OF the yet greater nOn-readIng world, Is II lt-
crary triumph that not every generation IS allowed
VIM was the anthor Of" Adam I'cdc!" The ques-
tion bide fair to be ~ popular mystery nS @ tne
certainly mans name. and many readers, lnoing
no trace in its style OF that undclnablc quality
which distinguishes the auJhOrcsS from the author
as surely as her voice distinguishes tho woman from
the man, maintained TINT things were ~ they
seemed But from the very beginning others were
either kcencr sighted. or fOhdrr OF paradox, or III
ono way or auOtlerbctter informed. MeSsrS. Black
wood had received the manuscript oi Scenes Of
Clerical Life" from the hand OF George Henry Lewcs
under the belief tnnt George Eliot was the nnme
of man. ~ well rs mans name; nor ulu even u
critic no experienced aud almost uncrrng ~ the
late John BackWOOd sec through the disguise
Iewcs himself seems to have hold with rchbshOp
Whntcley that any direct inquiry INTO the author
ship of n book published anonymously or under a
fictitious name, is a faRrant ilnpeI tinence, which
ought on principle, to be answered with denial OF
knowledge, whether the denial be false or trne
When The LCdder was being projected nt the house
of W. L. Forster. (Ihe Secretary for lrelnndl, at
Rawdon, nCar Leeds Lcwes and Thornton Hunt
wore both present: and are Informed by one of
the company that the fCrmcr affected ignorance OF
even 40 much as the sex of the author Of Adam
Bcdc" which bad just appeared.
But there is another HnccdOtc which comes to us
on runally direct authority and IL much better
worth recording In fur il proves tho genius of
George Eliot t. be personal and natural-part of her
self and OF her life, and not the result, is
times argued and believed, of labOiOus cnture and
of after intercourse with other minds. A school
fellow of hers still living, who had as little di-
rect knowledge about the literary question
of the day as the rest of the world
never felt the least doubt to who was
the author of Adam l}ede. As soon as she had read
the book. " George Eliot Is Mary Anne Evans" she
said, and as all the world knows, she was right I;
il in an extraordinary piece of evidence to what
George Eliot The schoolgirl must have been.
Mrs Anne Evans was pOrn IN Warwckshirc i'll
the ncighbOrhnOd of Coventry, rot later than the
year 1870. Her father wns stcwnlii to the Newde'
yates of that county. On the influences upon her
writings OF the part OF England which she knows
the hest there IN no need % dwell. SrOtt Is not
more dis;mctivcly of the Border lennySOn Of Lin
colIshrc. Kingsley of Devon. than
sLr OF the Mldlauds. Her genus Is
thc reverse OF cosmopolitan. and her strength
lessons the further she goes from home.
II 1t nIwQvs happy accident fora nOycllst-thOugh
urohn nlv the reverse is true Of the pOct-when his
rrums iq localized. Provincial life, rs nobody
knew better than Balzac hlmSelG. ~ OF necessity
more intense in It's expression, deeper III ITS roots, AT
once moro ul of self and IN jrr rnslav'd ny limits
nud circumstance, more characteristic altogether,
aud moro open TO thOrugh. peIsOlal, anu svnl-
pathctlC atnhv than the life OF great CITIES can pO5-
slby bc, which no hand, not even BliZacs own,
has ever been large enough to bold George Ell)rs