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Unfortunately her mother died in 1839 and she was called back from school by
her father to take care of her house and after which she continued her education from home. In 1841 she moved to Foleshill, a much larger town.
Here she came in contact with Charles and Mary Bray who were to be her
close friends for many years to come. Bray had connections with some of the most
influential thinkers of the time. Through him she was given the difficult task of translating a work of Strauss because of her knowledge of German.
Under their influence, Mary stopped believing in Evangelism and refused to
accompany her father to church. This led to a lifelong rift between the two.
Anne then came in contact with John Chapman, a publisher and
bookseller
from London. In 1851 he required an editor for his Westminister review and Anne
was only two glad to oblige. She continued with this job for the next two years
but after that she grew tired of it. She was 37 and very lonely and depressed.
She had earlier met a man named George Henry Lewes and by 1853 they were seeing
each other. Their relationship was frowned upon by society because George was a
married man though his relationship with his wife had long since been over. Anne
and George lived together for many years and though they were never officially
married were very happy with each other. It was in this time period that she
published all her major works like Mill on the
Floss, Silas Marner, Felix Holt and Middlemarch. For many years she
wrote under the pseudonym of George Eliot because in those days writing was considered a male profession. It was only when other imposters claimed
authorship of her novel, Adam Bede that she revealed her true identity and was recognized for the true genius that she actually was.
George became ill and in 1878 he passed away leaving Anne very depressed
and alone. For many months she refused to see any of her friends. Then after almost a year she agreed to see one of their friend’s
and manager of
sorts, a young man named John Cross. As the months went by they grew closer and Cross
proposed to her thrice. Finally Anne consented and they were married in May of 1880. Again the couple faced scorn from society because Cross was 20
years her junior. On 19th December 1880, Mary became suddenly ill. She had suffered from kidney stones earlier but this time she was in immense pain.
Within a short period of three days she expired due to kidney problem leaving Cross a widower just seven months after marriage. She was buried
besides George Lewes, as per his wishes, in Highgate cemetery in London.
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