George Eliot | Page 5

and this
event, as she afterwards said, first made her acquainted with "the
unspeakable grief of a last parting." Soon after, her older sister and her
brother were married and left home. She alone remained with her father,
and was for several years his housekeeper. "He offered to get a
housekeeper," says Miss Blind, "as not the house only, but farm matters
had to be looked after, and he was always tenderly considerate of 'the
little wench,' as he called her. But his daughter preferred taking the
whole management of the place into her own hands, and she was as
conscientious and diligent in the discharge of her domestic duties as in
the prosecution of the studies she carried on at the same time." Her
experiences at this period have been made use of in more than one of
her characters. The dairy scenes in Adam Bede are so perfectly realistic
because she was familiar with all the processes of butter and cheese

making.
In 1841 her father gave up his business to his son and moved to
Foleshill, one mile from Coventry. A pleasant house and surroundings
made the new home, and her habits of thought and life became more
exact and fastidious. The frequent absence of her father gave her much
time for reading, which she eagerly improved. Books were more
accessible, though her own library was a good one.
She zealously began and carried on a systematic course of studies, such
as gave her the most thorough results of culture. She took up Latin and
Greek with the head master of the Coventry grammar-school, and
became familiar with the classic literatures. French, German and Italian
were read in all the master-pieces of those languages. The Old
Testament was also studied in the original; at the same time she became
a proficient player on the piano, and obtained a thorough knowledge of
music. During several years of quiet and continuous study she laid the
foundations of that accurate and wide-reaching knowledge which was
so notable a feature of her life and work. It was a careful, systematic
knowledge she acquired, such as entitled her to rank as an educated
person in the fullest sense. Her painstaking thoroughness, and her
energetic application, were as remarkable at this time as in later years.
Her knowledge was mainly self-acquired, but it was in no sense
superficial. It is difficult to see in what way it could have been
improved, even if the universities had been open to her.
Her life and her studies at Coventry have been well described by one
who knew her. We are told that "in this somewhat more populous
neighborhood she soon became known as a person of more than
common interest, and, moreover, as a most devoted daughter and the
excellent manager of her father's household. There was perhaps little at
first sight which betokened genius in that quiet gentle-mannered girl,
with pale grave face, naturally pensive in expression: and ordinary
acquaintances regarded her chiefly for the kindness and sympathy that
were never wanting to any. But to those with whom, by some unspoken
affinity, her soul could expand, her expressive gray eyes would light up
with intense meaning and humor, and the low, sweet voice, with its

peculiar mannerism of speaking--which by the way wore off in after
years--would give utterance to thoughts so rich and singular that
converse with Miss Evans, even in those days, made speech with other
people seem flat and common. Miss Evans was an exemplification of
the fact that a great genius is not an exceptional, capricious product of
nature, but a thing of slow, laborious growth, the fruit of industry and
the general culture of the faculties. At Foleshill, with ample means and
leisure, her real education began. She acquired French, German and
Italian from Signor Brezzi. An acquaintance with Hebrew was the
result of her own unaided efforts. From Mr. Simms, the veteran
organist of St. Michaels, Coventry, she received lessons in music,
although it was her own fine musical sense which made her in after
years an admirable pianoforte player. Nothing once learned escaped her
marvellous memory; and her keen sympathy with all human feelings, in
which lay the secret of her power of discriminating character, caused a
constant fund of knowledge to flow into her treasure-house from the
social world about her."
Marian Evans early showed an unusual interest in religious subjects.
Her parents belonged to the Established Church, while other members
of the family were zealous Methodists. Religion was a subject which
occupied much of their attention, and several of them were engaged in
one way and another in its inculcation. Marian was an attentive listener
to the sermons preached in the parish church, and at the age of twelve
was teaching in a Sunday school held