Mary Ann Evans, 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: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–1863), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside.
Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by English author George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midlands town, in 1829 to 1832, it follows distinct, intersecting stories with many characters. Issues include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Despite comic elements, Middlemarch uses realism to encompass historical events: the 1832 Reform Act, early railways, and the accession of King William IV. It looks at medicine of the time and reactionary views in a settled community facing unwelcome change. Eliot began writing the two pieces that formed the novel in 1869–1870 and completed it in 1871. Initial reviews were mixed, but it is now seen widely as her best work and one of the great English novels.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1859.
Dinah Maria Craik was an English novelist and poet. She is best remembered for her novel, John Halifax, Gentleman, which presents the mid-Victorian ideals of English middle-class life.
Adam Bede was the first novel by English author George Eliot, first published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time. The novel has remained in print ever since and is regularly used in university studies of 19th-century English literature. She described the novel as "a country story full of the breath of cows and scent of hay".
Ellastone is a village in the East Staffordshire borough of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands of England. It is on the Staffordshire side of the River Dove and is directly opposite the village of Norbury in Derbyshire. It is between Uttoxeter and Ashbourne.
Victorian literature is English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era that the novel became the leading literary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transformations in most aspects of English life, from scientific, economic, and technological advances to changes in class structures and the role of religion in society. The number of new novels published each year increased from 100 at the start of the period to 1000 by the end of it. Famous novelists from this period include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling.
Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter. She is portrayed as a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors. The character has been called "among the first and most important female protagonists in American literature".
Mary Ann Cotton was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their insurance policies. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic.
Hetty or Hettie is a female first name, often a diminutive form (hypocorism) of Henrietta.
Dinah Morris is a major character in George Eliot's novel Adam Bede (1859); a Methodist lay preacher, she was modelled on Eliot's aunt Elizabeth Evans.
Sylvia's Lovers (1863) is a novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, which she called "the saddest story I ever wrote".
Norbury is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Rocester, on the B5033 road and the River Dove. The hamlet has links with George Eliot's family, the Evans. George Eliot's father, Robert Evans, was born in Roston Common and sang in the choir at Norbury church, and most of George Eliot's paternal ancestors are buried there.
Sorrel, Rumex acetosa, is a perennial herb cultivated as a leaf vegetable.
Adam Bede is a 1918 British silent drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Bransby Williams, Ivy Close and Malvina Longfellow. It is an adaptation of the 1859 novel Adam Bede by George Eliot.
Dinah is a Hebrew female given name meaning judged or vindicated.
Anne Mozley was a British author and critic. She lived in Derby and the small village of Barrow-upon-Trent, which is south of the city. She has been described as an almost anonymous author, as few of her works were attributed to her on first publication. She is credited with the first review of George Eliot's book, Adam Bede, that recognized that it had to be written by a woman.
Mary of Nazareth is a 2012 Italian-German-Spanish television movie directed by Giacomo Campiotti. It focuses on life events of Mary of Nazareth, Mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene.
Mabelle Biggart was an American educator, dramatic reader, preacher, and writer. In 1890, Biggart was in charge of the department of elocution at the Chautauqua assembly of Glen Park, Colorado, and that she was giving exercises illustrating the Delsarte System. Around the same time, she had been instrumental in starting the Polytechnic Institute and Woman's Athletic Club of Denver, intended to aid women to gain health, strength, and beauty. She had also assumed charge of a "Polytechnic Department" in the Denver NewsLetter, devoting the space to physical culture, science, and literature. She wrote articles for various publications including, "A Woman that is a Woman", "List to the Voice!", "Newfoundland", "Where is the New Woman?", "Dr. Grenfell's Labrador Mission", and "On the Painted Desert".
