Editing George Eliot (section)

=== Relationship with George Henry Lewes ===
[[File:George Eliot by Samuel Laurence.jpg|thumb|Portrait of George Eliot by [[Samuel Laurence]], c. 1860]]

The philosopher and critic [[George Henry Lewes]] (1817–1878) met Evans in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. Lewes was already married to Agnes Jervis, although in an [[open marriage]]. In addition to the three children they had together, Agnes also had four children by [[Thornton Leigh Hunt]].<ref>{{cite book|last= Henry|first= Nancy|title= The Cambridge Introduction to George Eliot|year= 2008|publisher= Cambridge|location= Cambridge|page=6}}</ref>  In July 1854, Lewes and Evans travelled to [[Weimar]] and Berlin together for the purpose of research. Before going to Germany, Evans continued her theological work with a translation of Feuerbach's ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'', and while abroad she wrote essays and worked on her translation of [[Baruch Spinoza]]'s ''[[Ethics (Spinoza)|Ethics]]'', which she completed in 1856, but which was not published in her lifetime because the prospective publisher refused to pay the requested £75.<ref>Hughes, Kathryn, ''George Eliot: The Last Victorian'', p. 168.</ref> In 1981, Eliot's translation of Spinoza's ''Ethics'' was finally published by Thomas Deegan, and was determined to be in the public domain in 2018 and published by the ''George Eliot Archive''.<ref>{{cite web |last=de Spinoza |first=Benedict |orig-year=1981 |year=2018 |title=The Ethics of Benedict de Spinoza, Translated by George Eliot |url=https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/321 |access-date=12 June 2022 |website=The George Eliot Archive}}</ref> It has been re-published in 2020 by Princeton University Press.<ref name="carlisle">{{cite book |last1=Spinoza |first1=Benedictus de |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691193236/spinozas-ethics |title=Spinoza's Ethics |date= 2020 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691193236 |editor-last=Carlisle |editor-first=Clare |translator-last=Eliot |translator-first=George}}</ref>

The trip to Germany also served as a honeymoon for Evans and Lewes, who subsequently considered themselves married. Evans began to refer to Lewes as her husband and to sign her name as Mary Ann Evans Lewes, legally changing her name to Mary Ann Evans Lewes after his death.<ref>{{cite book|title=George Eliot: A Biography|last=Haight|first=Gordon S.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1968|location=New York|page=523}}</ref> The refusal to conceal the relationship was contrary to the social conventions of the time, and attracted considerable disapproval.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}