One of the greatest English authors of the 19th century, George Eliot is renowned for her realistic storytelling and insight into the human psyche. This BBC Radio collection presents dramatisations of her five most famous novels, as well as an exploration of her life through her fictional characters.

Adam Bede

Summer, 1799, and in the Staffordshire village of Hayslope, one of Lisbeth Bede's sons has marriage on his mind.... Eliot's haunting story of love betrayed and rewarded stars Thomas Arnold and Victoria Liddelle.

The Mill on the Floss

Free-spirited country girl Maggie Tulliver must look outside the love of her own family to find the fulfilment she craves. This classic tale of rejection and reconciliation stars Deborah Findlay, Jasmine Hyde, Tom Goodman-Hill and David Tennant.

Silas Marner

Reclusive, embittered miser Silas Marner finds salvation when he fosters a little foundling girl - but his life with Eppie is threatened when her biological father makes a claim on her.... Starring George Costigan and Rebecca Callard.

Middlemarch

In 1830s England, passionate idealist Dorothea Brooke yearns to right society's wrongs. Starring Caroline Martin, Robert Glenister and Roger Allam.

Daniel Deronda

From the moment their eyes meet across a packed gaming room, Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda are irresistibly drawn to one another - and their fates become eternally and tragically entwined. Starring Anna Chancellor and Michael Perceval-Maxwell.

In George Eliot: A Life in Five Characters, presenter Kathryn Hughes paints a portrait of the author through her key characters, as she talks to Eliot's biographer Philip Davis and authors Tessa Hadley, Sarah Moss, Sathnam Sangera, David Constantine and Kathy O'Shaughnessy.

First published 1859 (Adam Bede), 1860 (The Mill on the Floss), 1861 (Silas Marner), 1871-72 (Middlemarch), 1876 (Daniel Deronda).