Throughout her work, George Eliot strove to instil a greater tolerance and sympathy in her readers, yet her social position as the unmarried wife of George Henry Lewes nevertheless scandalized Victorian society. Lewes remained her devoted partner, mentor and protector until his death, two years before her own. In this biography, the author examines the relationship between George Eliot's life and work. He illuminates the sources of the novelist's inspiration and conveys the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of the author: her need to be loved and her dazzling intelligence that drew her into the circle of thinkers such as Darwin, Henry James and Turgenev.