Publisher's Synopsis
In October 1851, a chance meeting in a Piccadilly bookshop changed the course of literary history. For it was here that Mary Ann Evans was introduced to the love of her life, the married critic and philosopher George Lewes. Encouraged and supported by Lewes, Mary Ann Evans went on to become the queen of literary London, famous under her pen name, George Eliot. In nurturing George Eliot's talent, Lewes drew inspiration from the works of his own favourite writer, Jane Austen. On the face of it, Austen and Eliot had little in common. And yet, when George Eliot embarked on her career as an author in the late 1850s, the works of Jane Austen were at her side and feeding her imagination. Packed with quotes from letters, diaries and the nation's favourite novels, this book provides a history of two genius novelists, the world that shaped them, and the works they left behind.
