INTRODUCTION BEST STORY:

 INTRODUCTION BEST STORY:

1819         Born as Mary Ann Evans on November 22 in  

                 Arbury, Warwickshire, England to Robert and 

                 his second wife, Christiana Pearson.  

1828         Attends Miss Wellington's Boarding 

                 School in Nuneaton. 

1832         Attends the Misses Franklin's School in Coven-try, 

1836         Mother dies. 

1837- 47   Returns to be father's housekeeper. 

1841         Father retires and they move to Foleshill,  

                 Coventry. Becomes part of the freethinking 

                 intellectual circle of Charles and Cara Bray 

                 and Charles Hennell.

1842         Leaves the Orthodox Christian faith, causing a 

                 four-month estrangement from her father. 

1846         Publishes her translation of David E Strauss's The 

                 Life of Jesus, Critically Examined.

 1849         Father dies. Travels with Brays to Europe, 

                 staying in Geneva for eight months.

1849-50    Meets John Chapman, editor of the Westminster                             Review. Becomes assistant editor of 

                 the publication, and contributes articles and reviews 

                 to this and other publications.

 

                 Lives with Chapman and his wife in London. 

                 Meets Herbert Spencer, 

                 who does not return her affection? 

1853         Meets George Henry Lewes.

1854         Intimately involved with Lewes and will

                 remain so for the rest of his life; the two travel

                 to Germany and will travel to Europe many

                 times in the next 20 years. Publishes her

                 translation of Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence

                 of Christianity.

1857        Scenes of Clerical Life published in Blackwood's

                Edinburgh Magazine assumes a pseudonym

                George Eliot. Informs her brother Isaac of her

                relationship with Lewes, and he refuses any

                further communication with her.

1858        Scenes of Clerical Life published.

1859        Adam Bede published.

1860        The Mill on the Floss was published.

1861        Silas Marner published.

1862        Romola begins to appear in serial form in

                Coghill Magazine.

1863        Romola published.

1866        Felix Holt published.

1868        The Spanish Gypsy, an epic poem, was published.

1869        Thornton, son of Lewes, dies...

1871-72   Middlemarch published.

1874        The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems published.

1875        Death of Bertie, another child of Lewes.

1877        Daniel Deronda published.

1877        Working on Impressions of Theophrastus Such, 

                a series of essays. Lewes dies on November 30.

1879        Completes and publishes Lewes's Problems of

                Life and Mind. John Blackwood, Evans's 

                publisher dies.

1880        Marries 40-year-old John Walter Cross, her

               financial advisor, on May 6. Brother Isaac

               communicates with her for the first time since

               the beginning of her relationship with Lewes,

               Evans dies on December 22.

                              Key Facts

              Full title-- Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe.

              Author-George Eliot.

              Type of work-- Novel.

              Genre--Victorian novel, a novel of manners, 

              pastoral fiction.

                              Language- English.

              Time and place wrote-- 1860-61, London.

              Date of first publication-- 1861.

              Publisher-- William Blackwood and Sons.

              Narrator-An anonymous omniscient speaker with no

                              part in the plot. 

Point of view --The narrator speaks in the omniscient third

person, describing what the characters are seeing,

feeling, and thinking, and what they are failing to see,

feel, and think. The narrator uses the first person

singular "I," but at no point enters the story as a

character. 

Near the beginning, a personal story

unrelated to the action of the novel is relayed to

provide corroborating evidence for a generalization,

hinting that a narrator is a real person.

Tone-Morally uncompromising, slightly condescending, but nevertheless deeply sympathetic to characters' failings.