Why did Marian Evans write under the pen name of George Eliot?

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, one of the leading English novelists of the 19th century. She used a male pen name to ensure her works were taken seriously in an era when female authors were usually associated with romantic novels. As a child, Mary Ann studied Latin, Greek, Italian, French, and German. She also became a skilled pianist. Later, when she became an author, she used the name ‘George Eliot’. In 1850, Eliot began contributing to the ‘Westminster Review’, a leading journal for philosophical radicals, and later became its editor.

There is no doubt that George Eliot became one of the greatest authors of the 19th century. Her chief works are ‘Adam Bede’, ‘The Mill on the Floss’, ‘Silas Marner’, ‘Romola’, ‘Felix Holt’, ‘Middlemarch’, ‘Daniel Deronda’, and ‘Theophrastus Such’. Her novels, most famously ‘Middlemarch’, are celebrated for their realism and psychological insights.