<P>As a woman in an illegal marriage, publishing under a male pseudonym, George Eliot was one of the most successful yet controversial writers of the Victorian period. Today she is considered a key figure for women¿s writing and her novels, including <EM>The Mill on the Floss</EM> and <EM>Middlemarch</EM>, are commonly ranked as literary classics.</P><P>This guide to Eliot¿s enduringly popular work offers:</P><UL><LI>an accessible introduction to the contexts and many interpretations of Eliot¿s texts, from publication to the present </LI><LI>an introduction to key critical texts and perspectives on Eliot¿s life and work, situated in a broader critical history </LI><LI>cross-references between sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism </LI><LI>suggestions for further reading. </LI></UL><P>Part of the <EM>Routledge Guides to Literature</EM> series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of George Eliot and seek