George Henry Lewes

George Henry Lewes (1817-1878), English critic, philosopher, and scientist, born in London, and educated in England, France, and Germany. As a literary critic, Lewes edited periodicals but is best known for his Life of Goethe (2 volumes, 1855), one of the finest biographies in English. He also wrote The Spanish Drama (1846) and Actors and Acting (1875), Biographical History of Philosophy (4 volumes, 1845-1846), and a number of works popularizing science, notably the unfinished treatise The Problems of Life and Mind (5 volumes, 1874-1879). He left his wife in 1854 and lived thereafter with the novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), whose work he influenced greatly.