ABSTRACT
George Eliot started learning German in March 1840 at the age of twenty, and six short months later she was already reading Schiller's Maria Stuart. Eliot's admiration for Schiller falls more naturally into place. Not only was his renown at a high point when Eliot read him most intensively, but his passionate crusade for freedom of thought reached her at a time when she herself was in revolt against the Evangelical Christianity of her youth and searching for new sources of humanistic inspiration. After Eliot's return to England, Schiller continues to feature quite prominently in her writing. In The Future of German Philosophy she ranks Schiller among Germany's 'greatest men' in terms of versatility. Equally noteworthy is that in her discursive interludes Eliot often illustrates abstract ideas by giving humorous or homely examples from practical life in a way strongly reminiscent of Schiller in his philosophical work.
