The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-12-24
Ghe Gnteltigetrter,
Dnice, Nos. 20 and "a Fourteenth Sireei



The brief dispatch in our columns this
morning announcing the death OF Mrs.
Marian Gross, nee Marian Evans, better
known by her press pseudonym oil
"George Eliot" will be cause Of sincere
regret to many Of her admirers in this
vicinity. There probably Is no living wo.
man. whose literary fame Is the equal OF
George Eliot's," and the unusual circum-
sauces OF her life have given her pecu.
liar position in the estimation OF the read
ing world. That she was great novelist
none will probably deny. That she
was as well pure woman
many will readily admit. She was born
in Warwickshire in 1920. Her first work,
"scenes Of Clerical Liie," originally ap.
peared in BlackwoOd's Magasine in 1857,
and was published in book form in Lon
don in 1858. 1t was followed by "Adam
Bede" 1850, which at once secured for
It's author place among the first Of En-
glish novelists, and formed the beginning
Of series oi works each Of which has con-
Grmed George Eliot in the high
position which criticism has almost
universally allotted to her. "The Mill on
the Floss" appeared in 1850; "silas Mar
nsr" in 1851; "Romola" (frst published
as a serial in the CornhiR Magasine) in
1883; "Felix Holt, the Radical" in 1855,
and "Middlemarch," one Of her most re-
markable prose works, in 1871. "Daniel
Deronda," by some considered the most
powerful effort OF her pen, has since been
her only prominent contribution to Eng
lish literature. She translated strauss's
"Liie Of Jesus" 1S46), and Auerbach's
"Essence OF Christianity," (lS54).' Her
poetical works are "The Spanish Gipsy"
(ls6s) aud "The Legend OF Jubal" 1873.
She was for time associate editor Of the
Matchmaker RcviesC.
Among the highest characteristics #
"George Eliot" as writer Of fiction is
her remarkable power in the delineation,
not so much OF character already formed
as Of It's development. Almost uncon-
sciously the reader follows every process
in the growth OF those strong individual
types with which her novels are filed, and
sees the logical influence OF every circum-
stance and event brought to bear upon
their lives. In all OF her works the physi-
cal and material difficulties to which her
actors are subjected, and all those things
which ordinarily constitute the "plo" are,
without losing their interest in any way,
made con pletely subordinate to this
leading design Of picturing the
development Of the individual char
acter under different conditions. Thus
her novels form some Of the best ex.
amples in the English language OF the true
carrying out Of the highest purpose OF fic-
ton. Hardly less important characteris-
tics are her singular skill in seizing and
embodying thoroughly human types OF
mind and thought, so that each one Of her
characters becomes living representative
Of some traits which every reader
recognizes; and her power Of terse and al
most epigrammatic expression places
her works among the small number from
which expressions pass into popular and
current quotations. The subjects Of her
novels were generally taken from English
village and provincial life. The notable
exceptions were "Romola' and Daniel
Deronda."
Some months after the death OF Mr..
George Lewes, with whom her relations
had always been Of the closest intimacy
and 10 whom she Is reported to have been
married upon the death Of his wife, she
startled the literary world by contracting
second matrimonial alliance and retiring
to her country seat. She has since been
living very quietly, and the news Of her
death will be great surprise to her admi-
rers all over the world who had no previ-
Gus intimation OF her Ill health.