3-057-376 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Dedication from George Eliot (Marian Lewes) to her partner, George Henry Lewes, in Vol I of "Adam Bede", 1859; followed by a note on the composition of the book. 'To my dear husband, George Henry Lewes, I give this M.S. [manuscript] of a work which would never have been written but for the happiness which his love has conferred on my life. Marian Lewes, March 23, 1859. The first volume was written at Richmond, the second at Munich & Dresden, the third at Richmond again. The work was begun on the 22nd October 1857, and finished on the 16th November 1858. A large portion of it was written twice, though often scarcely at all altered in the copying; but other parts only once, and among these the description of Dinah and a good deal of her sermon. The love scene between her & Seth, "Hetty's World", most of the scene in the Two Bedchambers, the talk between Arthur & Adam, various parts in the second volume which I can recal less easily, & in the third, Hetty's journeys, her confession & the cottage scenes'. Mary Ann Evans, who wrote under the pen name George Eliot, openly lived with Lewes, philosopher and critic of literature and theatre. Here she calls herself Marian Lewes although they weren't married. Such relationships flouted the conventions of the time.