Before George Eliot became the popular and respected

I'm reluctant to chime in on this one because I believe there are a couple of transcription errors in the original post (for example, a comma missing in B and the end of the sentence is missing in the given sentence). I'm relying more on the BTG post linked above. Plus, I think it is odd that the name George Eliot is used twice, not because of redundancy, but because of inaccuracy. Before the author became known as George Eliot, she (by definition of "before"!) was not referred to as George Eliot. In case you were wondering, she was known as Mary Anne Evans originally (thanks Wikipedia!).

But all that aside, A is better than D because the commas around George Eliot are incorrect, or at least debatable. "Known as" may be wordier, but it is more correct.

For example:
The popular and often-quoted author Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during his formative years. CORRECT.
The popular and often-quoted author known as Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during his formative years. CORRECT.
The popular and often-quoted author, Mark Twain, lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during his formative years. INCORRECT (or at least less correct).

Some might argue that his name is parenthetical, and the sentence is grammatically complete as "The popular and often-quoted author lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during ...." They'd be right. But it's tough to make the case that the name of this author is optional/unimportant/less important than the generic subject "author."

The real GMAT would make all 4 wrong answers more definitively wrong than that, in my opinion.

Past perfect is not required when the sequence of events are clear.

The word "Before" clearly indicates the sequence of events. So my answer is D. But the OA is A. Can anyone please explain whats wrong with D and what makes A a better answer?

Hi Maaadhu,

Here is D in full

Before George Eliot became the popular and respected novelist, George Eliot,she was an anonymous translator and essayist

It doesn't make sense. Before George Eliot became George Eliot?

In A you have the 'known as' which makes this clear.

Answer by elimination

(A) Before George Eliot became the popular and respected novelist known as George Eliot, she was
- Correct

(B) Before she had been the popular and respected novelist, George Eliot, she was
She was a translator and essayist before becoming popular, so "had been" for a later event (becoming popular) is not correct. Noun repeated twice.

(C) George Eliot has been the popular and respected novelist, George Eliot, after such time as she was
No reason to use present perfect tense, when the other verb is in simple past (was). "after such time as she was" cant even interpret what does this mean

(D) Before George Eliot became the popular and respected novelist, George Eliot, she was
Noun repeated twice.

(E) George Eliot, before she was the popular and respected novelist, George Eliot, had been
Noun repeated twice. "was" changes the meaning from transitioning (became) to the final state (was). I became angry vs. I was angry.
No issue with using past perfect tense ("had been") to express a before event in past tense

Thanks

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