Janet Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot The ‘blurb’ Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past. Silas Marner, George Eliot's favourite of her novels, combines humour, rich symbolism and pointed social criticism to create an unsentimental but affectionate portrait of rural life. Silas Marner is wrongly accused of stealing from a dead man. Betrayed by his closest friend and rejected by his fiancé, he leaves the small community of Lantern Yard and moves to Raveloe. Mistrusted by his neighbours, and thought by some to be a witch because of his use of medicinal herbs, he is reclusive, preferring to have little to do with his fellow villagers. Instead, he spends his time weaving, and hoards the money he makes, which grows into a small fortune by virtue of his frugality. In the meantime, Godfrey Cass the local Squire’s son is hiding a secret. He makes an unwise loan to his brother who is unable to repay the money, Godfrey has to allow Dunstan to sell Godfrey’s beloved horse to recuperate the money - Dunstan takes the horse but then disappears. Silas’ money is stolen and the loss to him is unbearable, but fate delivers a child to him, a little girl whom he calls Hephzibah (known as Eppie) - he adopts her and as the close bond they form mellows Silas, his love for his stolen gold changes to the deep love a father has for a child. However, Silas and Godfrey have something in common and one day this link is bound to be revealed. I have never read any of Eliot’s work before (in fact, I’ve not even seen a TV adaptation of any of her work) but I came across this in a charity shop in Stratford Upon Avon and loved the sound of it - and I wasn’t wrong. This is a brilliant tale of love (but it’s not a love story in the true sense of the word) and of intrigue. It’s not a very long story (the edition I have has a lot of notes and appendices - the actual story is just 178 pages long) but the writing is wonderful and the story so very enjoyable. If, like me, you haven’t read any of George Eliot’s books then I’d say this was a really good place to start! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Sounds like a good read to me, I might have to bump this up on my TBR pile Thanks for the review! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 No worries. It counts towards the 1001 Books... challenge too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bree Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 We did this at school - and I really enjoyed it. Marner's gentleness and quiet strength of spirit really touched me. Lovely book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Andrea~ Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I remember reading this in school for A Level (as part of a wider reading exercise around the authors we were studying - we were doing The Mill on the Floss for Eliot) and I really enjoyed it. Much more the Floss which I found proper hard work. Glad you liked it too! Maybe I'll re-read it some day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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