George Eliot (1819-1880)

Mary Ann Evans , known by her pen name George Eliot, was a famous gentile (non-Jewish) author. George Eliot was one of the leading writers of the Victorian. She was born in Nuneaton and lived for a time in Coventry on which her novel, Middlemarch is based. 

She was a friend of Annie Fridlander, daughter of leading Coventry Jewish watchmaker Alfred Fridlander, and so would have become familiar with Jewish life in Coventry. She once made a train journey from Coventry to London with Alfred Fridlander. It is thought that their conversations on that journey provided the inspiration for George Eliot's Jewish themed story of Daniel Deronda (1876). 

In the book, Daniel Deronda, speaking to his long-lost mother on their reunion, says:

What I have been most trying to do for fifteen years is to have some
understanding of those who differ from myself . 

George Eliot's final work was a collection of essays on life as seen through the eyes of the fictional writer Theophrastus Such. George Eliot reserves the last chapter of her final work for an impassioned plea against antisemitism and for understanding and tolerance. The essay is entitled The Modern ‘Hep! Hep! Hep!’ which reflects the cry of the Crusaders against both Jews and Muslims, and of the Hep-Hep Riots in 1819 - pogroms against Ashkenazi Jews, beginning in Bavaria - from where the Fridlander family had come. In this work, George Eliot again reflects on Sameness, Diversity and Discrimination. She recalls how 'in successive ages it has been said, "These people are unlike us, and refuse to be made like us: let us punish them." '

In these writings George Eliot captures the essence of antisemitism, and of all forms of racism, which are still with us today.

We are blessed in Coventry with a richly diverse mix of cultures, each of which adds its contributions to the life of the City. It is as we find understanding of those who are different from us, that we can grow tolerance and appreciation for each other to become the embodiment of peace and reconciliation for which our city stands. 

See these Links for further information:  (Note: These are external links for which we have no responsibility for the content)

• The George Eliot Fellowship