Marriage, Middlemarch & male pseudonyms: George Eliot’s unconventional life

George Eliot is hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century. And in many ways the writer’s life was just as fascinating as her work. She repeatedly challenged the restrictive norms of Victorian society by eloping with a married man, writing fiction under a male pseudonym and marrying someone 20 years younger than her. Professor Clare Carlisle tells Ellie Cawthorne about the author’s unconventional experience of marriage and her fascination with philosophy, and how these may have influenced her books.

Clare Carlisle is the author of The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life (Penguin, 2023)