54. - Eliot, George (1819–1880)

Summary

Before adopting the nom de plume “George Eliot,” Marian Evans was an essayist, translator, and for a time, editor of the influential British journal the Westminster Review. From early adulthood she mixed in intellectually radical circles. She commenced, but probably did not complete, a translation of Spinoza’s TTP in 1843. Unfortunately, this draft translation is lost. Evans’s partner was George Henry Lewes who authored several favorable pieces on Spinoza’s philosophy in influential publications (e.g., Lewes 1845). Originally commissioned to translate Spinoza’s Ethics, Lewes passed the task to Evans which she completed in 1856. However, an argument between Lewes and the publisher prevented publication of her translation. Had it been published, it would have been the first English-language edition of the Ethics. Tragically, her translation was not published until 1981 and even then, in a very small circulation edition. It was not until 2020 that a widely available scholarly edition was published.