[Illustration: GEORGE ELIOT'S BIRTHPLACE, SOUTH FARM, ARBURY,
NUNEATON]
Lewes and Marian Evans soon became all the world to each other, but
Lewes had an insane wife, and the foolish law of England forbade him
to get a divorce or to marry again. So the two decided to live
together and to be man and wife in everything except the sanction of
the law. The result was disastrous for a time to the woman. There is
no question that the social isolation that resulted hurt her deeply.
Her close friends like Spencer remained loyal, and her husband was
always the devoted lover as well as the ideal companion.
Two years after this new connection Lewes induced his wife to try
fiction. Her first story was _The Sad Adventures of the Rev. Amos
Barton_ which was followed by _Janet's Repentance_. These stories
appeared under the pen name of George Eliot, which she never
relinquished. Gathered into book form under the title _Scenes From
Clerical Life_, these stories in a minor key made a profound
impression on Charles Dickens, who divined they were the work of a
woman of unusual gifts.
The praise of Lewes and the appreciation of Dickens and other experts
gave great stimulus to her mind, and she produced _Adam Bede_, perhaps
her best work, which had a great success. In the following year came
_The Mill on the Floss_, an even greater success. Then in quick
succession came the other early novels, _Silas Marner_, _Romola_ and
_Felix Holt_.
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