Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity. Her first major literary work was the translation of David Strauss' Life of Jesus (1846). In 1857 The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, the first of the Scenes of Clerical Life, was published in Blackwood's Magazine and, along with the other Scenes, was well received. Her first complete novel, published in 1859, was Adam Bede and was an instant success. Eliot's most famous work, Middlemarch, was a turning point in the history of the novel.