George Eliot George Eliot Mary Anne Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Ann or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels, including "Adam Bede" (1859), "The Mill on the Floss" (1860), "Silas Marner" (1861), "Romola" (1862–63), "Middlemarch" (1871–72), and "Daniel Deronda" (1876), most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. Although female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, she wanted to escape the stereotype
Mary Ann Paton Mary Ann Paton Mary Ann Paton (1802–1864) married names including Mary Ann Wood, was a Scottish vocalist. The eldest daughter of George Paton, a writing-master at Edinburgh and amateur violin, and his wife, "née" Crawford, was born in Edinburgh in October 1802. She and her sisters received a good musical training: they were singers also, Isabella making her début at Mary Ann's benefit at Covent Garden Theatre, 1824, as Letitia Hardy, and Eliza sing at the Haymarket Theatre in 1833. Mary Ann, aged eight, appeared at public concerts as a singer, performer on the harp and pianoforte (Giovanni Battista Viotti's