“A woman's heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.”

Mary Ann Evans, a Victorian English novelist and critic, wrote under the male pseudonym George Eliot. She is best known for her psychologically nuanced novels exploring human complexity, particularly *Middlemarch* and *Adam Bede*. Her work remains influential for its realistic portrayal of rural and social life.