
Jersey Post celebrates the 200th birth anniversary of George Eliot, one of the most important writers of the 19th century, with a set of six stamps. These bright items show Jersey scenes painted by Peter Fancourt according to descriptions taken from the writer’s journals and letters created in summer 1857. A quote from Eliot has been incorporated into each of the designs.
Mary Ann Evans, writing under the pseudonym of George Eliot, was a highly acclaimed Victorian novelist. She is best remembered for writing classic books like Middlemarch and Silas Marner. Fans of her work included Queen Victoria herself and even today her novels entertain and delight readers. Mary Ann Evans visited Jersey in the summer of 1857 and stayed for three months with her partner George Lewes. It seems Eliot developed a great fondness for the Island during her stay and wrote of Jersey as “a sweet spot in our memories, while our memories last.”
See also other bright stamp issues on famous writers.