(1819-1880) George Eliot was the pen name of English female novelist Mary Ann Evans. Bom on November 22, 1819 on a farm near Nuneaton in Warwickshire, she used many of her real- life experiences in her books, which she wrote under a man's name in order to improve her chances of publication.Eliot worked on translations, short stories and eventually, novels. "Adam Bede" (1895), her first novel, combined realism and humor with finely tuned psychological insight. Her books reflect both deep sympathy ...