In the mid-1850s, having written numerous articles for the magazine Westminster Review, Mary Ann Evans decided to try her hand at writing fiction. For her first foray into the genre, she wrote three short stories (The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, Mr Gilfil’s Love-Story, and Janet’s Repentance), which were eventually collected and published in book form under the title Scenes of Clerical Life (1858). In order to be taken seriously as a writer and not be labelled a "lady novelist", Evans adopted the male pen name George Eliot and continued to use it throughout her professional career. In 1859, she was publicly identified as the author behind the name, following widespread speculation about who Eliot really was.
Charles Dickens was among the first to suspect that George Eliot was a woman writer. In January 1858, he wrote the following letter to Eliot after reading Scenes of Clerical Life. Already a celebrated author himself, Dickens praised the book while clearly hinting that Eliot was a woman.
Tavistock House, London,
Monday, 17th Jan. 1858My dear Sir,
I have been so strongly affected by the two first tales in the book you have had the kindness to send me, through Messrs. Blackwood [Eliot's publisher], that I hope you will excuse my writing to you to express my admiration of their extraordinary merit. The exquisite truth and delicacy, both of the humor and the pathos of these stories, I have never seen the like of; and they have impressed me in a manner that I should find it very difficult to describe to you, if I had the impertinence to try.
In addressing these few words of thankfulness to the creator of the Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton, and the sad love-story of Mr. Gilfil, I am (I presume) bound to adopt the name that it pleases that excellent writer to assume. I can suggest no better one: but I should have been strongly disposed, if I had been left to my own devices, to address the said writer as a woman. I have observed what seemed to me such womanly touches in those moving fictions, that the assurance on the title-page is insufficient to satisfy me even now. If they originated with no woman, I believe that no man ever before had the art of making himself mentally so like a woman since the world began.
You will not suppose that I have any vulgar wish to fathom your secret. I mention the point as one of great interest to me—not of mere curiosity. If it should ever suit your convenience and inclination to show me the face of the man, or woman, who has written so charmingly, it will be a very memorable occasion to me. If otherwise, I shall always hold that impalpable personage in loving attachment and respect, and shall yield myself up to all future utterances from the same source, with a perfect confidence in their making me wiser and better.
Your obliged and faithful servant and admirer,
Charles Dickens.
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