George Eliot—surprise, surprise—was actually a woman named Mary Ann Evans who published under a male pen name so that her work would be taken more seriously. She was one of the most important English novelists of the Victorian era, and she's widely credited with popularizing Realism within the English literary tradition.

Eliot's mostly known for the great psychological insights of her novels, but she's also famous for her detailed depiction of life in provincial England. She's here to tell us that those people living out in the country have dramas and crises, too.

Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life

All of Eliot's novels are big, but this is the big Eliot novel. As you can tell by the title, its focus is life in the provincial town of Middlemarch, which was a fictional location Eliot made up for the purposes of the story.

The novel follows the personal dramas of several characters, including Dorothea Casaubon, a young bride stuck in a marriage to a much older, sullen Mr. Casaubon. In this novel, you'll find Eliot's customary psychological nuance and insight, as well as a focus on the mundane details of provincial life.

The Mill on the Floss

One of Eliot's early novels, The Mill on the Floss tells the story of Maggie Tulliver and her brother, Tom, who grow up in a small town in Lincolnshire, England.

This novel is a great portrait of daily life in an English provincial town, full of lots of Realist detail. It's also a great study in gender issues facing people at the time.

Chew on This

In Middlemarch, George Eliot goes behind the scenes of a marriage, and married life, it turns out, is pretty complicated. Who knew? Check out this theme in the novel.

In The Mill on the Floss, Eliot focuses on provincial life. Have a look at how Eliot writes about provincial society in the novel here.