A great starting point for students seeking an introduction to George Eliot and the critical discussions surrounding her work.

Mary Ann Evans, also known as George Eliot, published under a male pen name during the Victorian Era to ensure her fiction was taken just as seriously as her male counterparts. This volume of critical essays compares Eliot to those male contemporaries, and studies some of her greatest works, including Silas Marner, Middlemarch, and The Mill on the Floss. Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources: A chronology of the author's life; A complete list of the author's works and their original dates of publication; A general bibliography; A detailed paragraph on the volume's editor; Notes on the individual chapter authors; A subject index.