"What is remarkable, extraordinary – and the process remains impenetrable and mysterious – is that this English lady is calm, anxious, sedentary, serious, invalid, without animal spirits, without adventures, without extravagance, without hypothesis, or bravado, should have made us believe that nothing in the world was foreign to him; should have produced such rich, profound and masterful images of the manifold life of man" (Henry James in The Atlantic Monthly. , May 1885) (Liukkonen)BIOGRAPHY “George Eliot” was born Mary Ann Evans, to Christiana and Robert Evans, on November 22, 1819 in Warwickshire, England. She was first educated in a nearby village and then boarded, for a time, first at Mrs Wallington's school in Neanton and later at Miss Franklin's school in Coventry. His upbringing instilled in him a strong sense of faith, based on evangelical Protestantism. In addition to her formal schooling in general subjects and several languages, Mary Ann's propensity for reading was encouraged by the adults around her from an early age. At the age of nineteen, she said the following about her education: “My mind is an assemblage of disjointed specimens of history, ancient and modern; scraps of poetry borrowed from Shakespeare, Cowper, Wordsworth and Milton; newspaper topics; pieces of Addison and Bacon, Latin verbs, geometry, entomology and chemistry; Reviews and metaphysics – all stopped, petrified and stifled by the ever-faster daily addition of real events, relative anxieties, domestic cares and annoyances. How deplorable and inexplicably evanescent our states of mind are, as varied as the shapes and hues of summer clouds! (Stephen) Although well-read, she experienced frustrations with her daily life, finding her calling, and being informed on a wide range of topics. Robert Evans' continued encouragement of his daughter's passion for knowledge meant