A startling new portrait of George Eliot, a beloved novelist and rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage.In her mid-thirties Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot-an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes-writer, philosopher and married father of three. After eloping to Berlin in 1854 they lived together for twenty-four years: Eliot asked people to call her Mrs Lewes and dedicated each novel to her Husband . Though they could not legally marry, she felt herself initiated into the great experience of marriage- this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength. The relationship scandalized her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Living at once inside and outside marriage, Eliot could experience this form of life-so familiar yet also so perplexing-from both sides. In The Marriage Question Clare Carlisle...

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