A POPULAR NOVELIST.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5378, 22 June 1878, Page 3

A POPULAR NOVELIST.

The London correspondent of the Chicago Times gives the following interesting account of the great novelist known in the literary world as George Eliot-The foremost novelist in England td-day is George Eliot. She is not only the first in England, but since the death of George Sand—whom she resembles in many respects—she is the first lady novelist in existence. At least, such seems to be the fact to one who is within the powerful magnetism of her presence. It may be that at a great distance she may seem less conspicuous. In fact, while always recognising her great genius, she never seemed so alone in the possession of transcendent ability as since I have come within the atmosphere of her life and labors. Probably you who are in distant America can judge her more accurately ; but in no case can distance, however great, much impair the dimensions of her commanding position. Before describing the George Eliot of to-day, let me refer for a moment to her early life. Her father was steward of the estates of tho Marquis of Aylesbury, at Nuneaton, and those of Sir Robert Peol at Tamworth. He was a very successful manager, and when ho died he left his business to a son, who yet cares for the same estates. I know nothing of Miss Evans’ early life, further than that her first literary work dates back to 1845 or 1848, and was a translation from the German of Straus’s “Lite of Jesus.” The rationalistic character of this work, and the knowledge of German necessary to its translation, afford one a hint as to, tho spiritual tendencies of, and the amount of information possessed by one who Could then have been only a very young girl. ; Her next production made its appearance in Black-

wood’s, and was entitled “Scenes in Clerical Life.” Her firsthit was “ Adam Bede.” Perhaps it may be stated as probable , that Miss Evans was stimulated in the direction and production of fiction by the wonderful success of Charlotte Bronte, ‘whose “ Jane Eyre” had just then taken the English world by storm. At that period in Miss Evans's life, or, at least, many years ago, George H. Lewes was editor of some well-known magazine—l believe the Westmins'er , Review. He is a man well known in literature, having written the “Physiology of Common Life,” “ The Life of Goeibe,” a translation of Comte’s philosophical works, and other valuable and elevated books. Mr. Lewes and Miss Evans became friends. Soon after this acquaintance Lewes’s wife eloped with Thornton Hunt, a son of the famous Leigh Hunt—-a person who in appearance and intellect was in every way inferior to the man whose wife he carried away. Thera were some children, whose motherless condition excited Miss Evans’s pity, and she took up her residence in Lewes’s house in order to care for them. By some trick Mrs. Lewes managed to secure an interview with Lewes under circumstances which had the effect of preventing a divorce during her lifetime. She then left and never returned. Lewes and Miss Evans went abroad, and were married under the laws of a foreign State. Whatever may have been the quality of the marriage then, the subsequent death of Mrs Lewes has had the effect to make it legal. I have thus very, briefly outlined George Eliot’s earlier life, for the reason that there is a very general misunderstanding in regard to it in America, and because it furnishes an explanation of her extraordinary sensitiveness, her reserve, her almost total seclusion from the general public. George Eliot is a woman who must have passed her tenth lustrum. Despite this, her hair, a very dark brown, has none of those silver threads which one might expect where the burden of over half a century of years is superimposed by incessant labor and by experiences full of desolation. She is not'handsome. Her face is long, pale, with a small sensitive mouth. Her eyes are vivid, warm blue-gray, full of depth, not keenly perceptive nor dreamily,introspective, always full of sadness. Her hair, worn low, gives a womanly effect to a finely intellectual forehead. Her general expression is that of wearied sensitiveness—a sensitiveness whose development ton lies so closely on suffering that they merge into each other, leaving it doubtful where the one ends and the other begins. Despite its sadness and suggestion of suffering, it is a face of resolute determination. This quality, however, seems the dominancy of pure will power.' Her slender figure has no expression of robust energy. Her will seems far in excess of her physical capacities, and her energy is thus an intellectual instead of a physical fact. She is, in spite of her sensitive suggestions, full of a grand repose. Her voice is low and penetrating, and she is, scarcely without exception, one of the greatest of living conversationalists.