Kitty Landers, age 15, of Lynn, Mass., for her question:

WAS GEORGE ELIOT A WOMAN?

George Eliot was the pen name of a woman. She was a great 19th Century English novelist named Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans. George Eliot wrote with sympathy, wisdom and realism about English country people and small towns. She wrote seriously about moral and social problems but her characters are living portraits.

George Eliot was born in Warwickshire in 1819. She had an excellent education in private schools and from tutors. After traveling in Europe, she settled in London where she wrote for important journals and became a friend of many important men.

Intellectuals of the time regarded her as one of the leading thinkers of the day.

One of George Eliot's books that continues to be read today is "Silas Marner," which was written in 1861. It is the story of an embittered old miser who loses his gold but turns to a more human life through his love for a little girl.

Another famous female "George" of the period was George Sand, a French novelist who was actually Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin. Born in Paris in 1804, her style was poetic but considered to be wordy.