British literary critic and author George Henry Lewes was born on April 18, 1817 in London,
England. He became part of the mid-Victorian ferment of ideas which encouraged
discussion of Darwinism, positivism, and religious skepticism. However, he is
perhaps best known today for having openly lived with author George Eliot (Mary
Anne Evans), his soul-mate whose life and writings were enriched by their
friendship, although they were never married. Lewes was an illegitimate son of
a minor poet, John Lee Lewes, and Elizabeth Ashweek and grandson of comic actor
Charles Lee Lewes. His mother married a retired sea captain when he was six and
frequent changes of home meant he was educated in different places. Having
abandoned successively a commercial and a medical career, he seriously thought
of becoming an actor and appeared several times on stage between 1841 and 1850.
Finally he devoted himself to literature, science and philosophy. He was friends
with Leigh Hunt, and through him, entered London literary society and met John Stuart
Mill, Thomas Carlyle, and Charles Dickens. In 1841 he married Agnes Jervis,
daughter of Swynfen Stevens Jervis. Lewes met writer Mary Anne Evans, later to
be famous as author George Eliot, in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live
together. Lewes and Agnes Jervis had agreed to have an open marriage, and in
addition to the three children they had together, Agnes had several children by
other men.
Lewes supported himself
by contributing reviews and articles to numerous magazines discussing a wide
range of subjects, often imperfect but revealing acute critical judgment
enlightened by philosophic study. In 1845–46, Lewes published The
Biographical History of Philosophy, an attempt to depict the life of
philosophers as an ever-renewed fruitless labor to attain the unattainable. In
1847–48, he published two novels Ranthrope,
and Rose, Blanche and Violet. In 1850 he collaborated with Thornton
Leigh Hunt in the foundation of the Leader, of which he was the literary
editor. In 1853 he republished under the title of Comte's Philosophy of the
Sciences a series of papers which had appeared in that journal. The
culmination of Lewes's work in prose literature is the Life of Goethe (1855),
probably the best known of his writings. Lewes’ versatility, and his
combination of scientific with literary tastes, eminently fitted him to
appreciate the wide-ranging activity of the German poet. Lewes died on November
30, 1878 in London, England and was buried at Highgate Cemetery (East) in London.
Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends.
The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:
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