LEWES, GEORGE HENRY

born April 18, 1817, London, Eng. died Nov. 28, 1878, London English philosopher, literary critic, dramatist, actor, scientist, and editor, remembered chiefly for his decades-long liaison with the novelist Mary Ann Evans (better known by her pseudonym, George Eliot). Lewes was the grandson of the actor Charles Lee Lewes and the son of the manager of Liverpool's Theatre Royal. After a desultory education, he spent two years in Germany and returned to London in 1840. During the next decade he wrote frequently for various journals and in the early 1840s corresponded with John Stuart Mill, through whom he became acquainted with the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte, usually considered the founder of sociology. In 1850 Lewes and his friend Thornton Leigh Hunt founded a radical weekly called The Leader, for which he wrote the literary and theatrical features. His Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences (1853) originally appeared as a series of articles in The Leader. Lewes married in 1841, and the couple lived communally with Hunt, Mrs. Hunt, and two other couples. Though initially a success, the arrangement failed after Mrs. Lewes had two children by Hunt. Lewes willingly registered the first child under his family name and remained friends with Hunt and his own wife. In 1851, however, after the birth of the second child, Lewes ceased to regard Mrs. Lewes as his wife. In the same year, after their estrangement, he met Mary Ann Evans. Legal divorce was impossible for Lewes because he had condoned the adultery, but from his separation in 1854 until his death, Lewes and Evans lived happily together. All of Lewes' major writings were stimulated by his association with Evans, which included mutual consultation about articles and attendance at plays and operas that Lewes reviewed for The Leader. Before turning to scientific studies, he published Life and Works of Goethe, 2 vol. (1855), which is still considered the best introduction in English to the poet. Besides numerous papers on motor and sensory nerves, he published Seaside Studies (1858), Physiology of Common Life, 2 vol. (185960), and Studies in Animal Life (1862). These were followed by a study of Aristotle (1864) and his most ambitious work, Problems of Life and Mind, 5 vol. (187379). He edited The Fortnightly Review (186566), contributing articles in science, politics, and literary criticism. A versatile writer and thinker in many fields, Lewes contributed most significantly to the development of empirical metaphysics; his treatment of mental phenomena as related to social and historical conditions was a major advance in psychological thought. Additional reading Rosemary Ashton, G.H. Lewes: A Life (1991).