This has always been one of my favorite novels ever since I read it in my teen years, more than half a century ago. It has been absolutely timeless and has been published in dozens of different editions from nearly every publisher which sells classic fiction. You can find it in any decent bookstore from coast to coast. I recently reread this little classic with my wife and it was just as wonderful an experience as it was the first time all those decades ago.
George Eliot was the pen name of an English woman named Mary Anne Evans who published at least seven novels in the late nineteenth century. "Silas Marner" was Eliot's third published novel in 1861. It is frequently found in high school and college literature courses; in some abbreviated form in text books of both English and world literature; and, is one of the best known early novels by women in English. But "Middlemarch" is generally considered to be her masterpiece. If it is that much better than "Silas Marner", then it truly is a masterpiece. I have never read "Middlemarch" but I assure you I will manage to do that in the near future and I already own a copy. I would love to read all her published works if I had unlimited time. I cannot recommend her work more highly.
This wonderful story of a lonely, miserly bachelor who is robbed of all his money and then saved, both emotionally and morally, by the sudden appearance of an orphan two year old girl on his doorstep upon the winter death of her drug addict mother is a tale which is priceless in its ability to give pleasure to both the ordinary recreational reader and the advanced student of great literature. Eliot's combination of long, complex sentences and interspersed short sentences of only three or four words is a type of writing which was not common at the time in which the author lived. Her skill set was unusual and unusually advanced for the late nineteenth century. The story is brief, only 175 pages in the edition which I just read from Arcuturus, an English publisher. But the story it tells is one that leaves strong, positive, enlightening, and educational impressions. This is a novel which no reader of great literature should ever pass up. The plot is direct but complex with strong characterizations of Silas Marner, the adopted daughter Eppie, and her secretive biological father who also lives nearby and is a major factor in the life of the community. Read this story! Enjoy it! Relish it! This is a book which you will never regret coming to know.
George Eliot was the pen name of an English woman named Mary Anne Evans who published at least seven novels in the late nineteenth century. "Silas Marner" was Eliot's third published novel in 1861. It is frequently found in high school and college literature courses; in some abbreviated form in text books of both English and world literature; and, is one of the best known early novels by women in English. But "Middlemarch" is generally considered to be her masterpiece. If it is that much better than "Silas Marner", then it truly is a masterpiece. I have never read "Middlemarch" but I assure you I will manage to do that in the near future and I already own a copy. I would love to read all her published works if I had unlimited time. I cannot recommend her work more highly.
This wonderful story of a lonely, miserly bachelor who is robbed of all his money and then saved, both emotionally and morally, by the sudden appearance of an orphan two year old girl on his doorstep upon the winter death of her drug addict mother is a tale which is priceless in its ability to give pleasure to both the ordinary recreational reader and the advanced student of great literature. Eliot's combination of long, complex sentences and interspersed short sentences of only three or four words is a type of writing which was not common at the time in which the author lived. Her skill set was unusual and unusually advanced for the late nineteenth century. The story is brief, only 175 pages in the edition which I just read from Arcuturus, an English publisher. But the story it tells is one that leaves strong, positive, enlightening, and educational impressions. This is a novel which no reader of great literature should ever pass up. The plot is direct but complex with strong characterizations of Silas Marner, the adopted daughter Eppie, and her secretive biological father who also lives nearby and is a major factor in the life of the community. Read this story! Enjoy it! Relish it! This is a book which you will never regret coming to know.
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