Eminent Lives - George Elliot

　　One of the nineteenth century’s greatest novelists, George Eliot redefined the novel as a serious criticism of life and probing analysis of human character. But how did she escape obscurity to become a wealthy best-seller? In this brilliantly engaging short biography, Brenda Maddox shows how Eliot’s life was transformed when she accepted the married George Henry Lewes as a partner. From then on she produced novel after novel, painting a masterly portrait of English communities during the Industrial Revolution and striking a powerful chord with her reading public. Maddox also offers new information on the mystery of the celebrated author’s sudden wedding in 1880 to John Walter Cross, after the death of her first husband. This was a marriage that lightened and darkened the last year of her life. Twenty years younger than his new wife, Cross was a volatile character, who, during their honeymoon, plummeted from their hotel balcony into Venice’s Grand Canal in an apparent suicide attempt. A short, accessible and endlessly fascinating biography of one of English literature’s most beloved authors and most complex women, this is the perfect introduction to George Eliot’s unconventional life and her timeless works.