'A tub to throw to the whale': Gender, reception, and the construction of 'George Eliot

Deciding to write fiction as George Eliot, Marian Evans "Lewes" became involved in a lifelong literary performance that affected her writing because of the seriousness with which she took her pseudonym. In part, the seriousness was artistic, reflecting her zest for the literary game of impersonation, which led her early on to present her narrative self in "drag." But it was also practical, for she put "George Eliot" to work to control the reception of her fiction and the acceptance of herself as a public figure when the time came to reveal that she was the actual author of "his" stories.;Because of her illicit liaison with G. H. Lewes such a revelation could have backfired and undermined her success as a writer as well as raising doubts about her integrity as a moralist. The essentially literary process by which she managed to avoid this danger involved rhetorical shifts and disguises that justify the use of such terms from queer theory as "drag," "closeting," "coming out," and "transvestism." In the end, by "performing" as George Eliot, Marian succeeded in being accepted as Mrs Lewes.;After explaining my focus and approach, I study the works written incognito and the impact on each of changing circumstances of composition, including her reaction to each work's reception. It was a complex process, calling forth continuing adjustment in balancing the woman writer's vision with the consequences of the masculine pseudonym. The smoothness with which Marian managed her self-disclosure during the composition of The Mill on the Floss despite the Liggins affair that provoked it is of special interest. I conclude by tracing the effect on the later novels of her new freedom in being known as a woman while still profiting from the authority of her masculine alter ego; in The Impressions of Theophrastus Such, I suggest, she allows herself to reflect on her literary life by means of a double mediation of voice.