No Subject

[gryffinKat]

Mary Ann Evans

[Unregistered]

Her name is Mary Ann Evans, but my English prof told me Eliot often changed the spelling of her name. Sometimes she was Marion Evans, for example. Hope this helps!

[Diane]

Her real name was Mary Ann Evans.

[Sharon]

George Eliot's real name is Edith Wharton

[Candace]

Mary Anne Evans

[Unregistered]

Ha, Sharon's an idiot. Keep your ignorance to yourself, tool.

[B]

Marian Evans, or Mary Ann Evans. She modified her name throughout her life.

[Unregistered]

What is George Eliot's real name?

[Albion]

Her name was Mary Anne Evans somtimes contracted to Marianne Evans. She chose a man's name as a pseudonym because it was thought at that time that a woman could not write convincingly (Jane Austen was the obvious exception and Mrs Gaskell came later). The interesting question is why George Eliot. George was a highly respectable name reflected in a century of kings of that name. But why Eliot? My theory is as follows:

She was multilingual in French and German as well as English. Her first novels "Scenes of Clerical Life" were about clergymen i.e. men of the cloth. "Toile" is a french word for a type of cloth; and Eliot is toile in reverse. This would account for the single "L"; normal spelling would be "Elliot" or "Elliott".

[kelby_lake]

She took the name 'George' from her lover, George Lewes.