Famous for her powerful and popular fiction, George Eliot was also a remarkable critic, translator, and editor. The depth and versatility of her intelligence are illustrated in this selection of critical writings which presents Eliot's views on science, religion, positivism, feminism, and politics, and includes her literary critical work on a range of authors and forms: Tennyson, Browning, Goethe, Heine, German historical criticism of the Bible, classical drama, and popular contemporary novels. Most of the pieces in this volume were written before Eliot began to write fiction in 1856, and short extracts from her early novels are juxtaposed with her journal entry `How I Came to Write Fiction' and her essays on realism in art. The volume is a vivid representation of the analytical mind, the wit, and the sympathy which also characterize the narrators of George Eliot's novels.