Fellowship Archive

This publication is out of print. We intend to do a new edition to bring it up to date. Meanwhile, Beverley Rilett has included it in her George Eliot Review website. Use the link above and type In A Community of Interest in the search box at the top right of the page to give you instant access.

A Community of Interest: The Story of the George Eliot Fellowship · George Eliot Review Online

We are grateful to Michael Harris for passing this essay by William Sharp to the Fellowship. It was first published by The Pall Mall Magazine in 1903 and was among the George Eliot papers of Michael’s wife Ruth who died earlier this year (2020). Ruth was a considerable expert on George Eliot and served on the Fellowship Council and as a Vice-President.

I want to talk this afternoon about George Eliot – or Mary Ann Evans, for that was her real name. She was, I think, above everything else sincere; what she believed she believed intensely, everything she did she did whole heartedly; there were no half measures about Mary Ann Evans, and all her life she had the courage of her convictions.

The George Eliot Fellowship wishes to make clear that we have no intention of renaming it as

• The Mary Ann Evans Fellowship
• The Mary Anne Evans Fellowship
• The Marian Evans Fellowship
• The Marian Evans Lewes Fellowship
• The Mrs John Cross Fellowship
• The Marian Cross Fellowship