George Eliot was the literary pseudonym of British author Mary Anne Evans, born in 1819 in Warwickshire, and destined to be one of the most celebrated, and notorious, of British female writers. Many of her novels deal with happy memories of her Warwickshire childhood, including her first great novel, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. For their depiction of childhood experiences and illustrations of children learning about moral themes, George Eliot's works have been taught as classic literature since their initial publication. Silas Marner is regarded by many as one of Eliot's best books, second only to her masterpiece, Middlemarch. The story of the miser and title character of Silas Marner, and his redemption from greed and misery by the love of a small child, is one of the classics of English literature.