George Eliot' was the pseudonym used by Mary Ann Evans. She was one of the most important writers of the Victorian era, renowned for her deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits. Her most famous work, Middlemarch, is a turning point in the history of the novel. Making masterful use of a counterpointed plot, Eliot presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832.