Silas Marner (Signet Classics)

In the nineteenth century, men didn't typically adopt children by themselves. Even today, it's a relative rarity -- when a single person adopts a baby, it's usually a woman.But the exception proves the rule in "Silas Marner," George Eliot's novel about a hermit-like weaver whose life is changed forever when a child wanders into his house. While Eliot explores the pliancy of gender roles and qualities, at heart this is just a heartwarming story about love and family. The ending is rather predictable and a little sappy, but it's a pleasant glimpse of English village life in the 1800s.Weaver Silas Marner moves to the town of Raveloe, and takes up residence far from other people. Nobody knows why, except for the readers -- he was betrayed by his best friend, dumped by his girlfriend, framed for a robbery and expelled from his church. He also suffers from cataleptic seizures, as if life for him didn't suck enough. Now he wants just to be alone in his remote house, and hoard the gold that he earns over fifteen years of weaving cloth.Then one night, the squire's dissolute younger son Dunsey Cass steals his gold and vanishes from the town, leaving Silas without the one thing he has come to love. Meanwhile, Dinsey's older brother Godfrey is freaking out because of an ill-advised marriage to a poor drug addict, which would probably get him disinherited if his strict father knew.But then the wife is found frozen to death in a blizzard, and her toddler child -- Godfrey's daughter -- wanders into Silas' house. And to the surprise of all Raveloe, Silas declares that since "it's a lone thing—and I'm a lone thing," and that he's going to care for the child from now on. This adoption will not only change Silas' life, but Godfrey's as well -- and as the child Eppie grows to adulthood, will finally bring about the admission of long-hidden secrets.As a woman who wrote serious literature in a time when women's literary skills were scoffed at, George Eliot knew something about the bendability of gender roles. Even though the main character is a heterosexual male, she subtly positions him as having a strong feminine side -- he has a job associated with femininity ("you're partly as handy as a woman, for weaving comes next to spinning"), he's the perceived successor of the local hedgewitch, and he has nothing to do with the "manly man" pursuits of boozing it up in the local pub every night, as literally all the local men do.And, of course, he cares for a young child with the tenderness and soft-heartedness that was usually attributed to women, not men. And yet, Eliot never treats this character with anything but respect -- he is not seen as less than other men because he has traditionally feminine traits, but as MORE. And these traits are ultimately what brings him happiness, love and friendship from everyone in the community.But while Silas is the center of the story, Eliot fleshes out the village of Raveloe with deft strokes, from the wealthy (Godfrey and his insufferable girlfriend/wife Nancy) to the ordinary working-class folks whose lives intersect with Silas'. And she knows both the good and bad of these communities -- they have good hearts and kindness, but they also tend to be kind of judgmental and ignorant of people different from themselves. The best example of this is Dolly, a smart, take-charge woman who becomes Silas' best friend and advisor.And twined together with Silas's story is the story of Godfrey, whose life withers as Silas' blooms. He's essentially a very weak man who shies away from telling the unpleasant truth to anyone, and misses out on fatherhood because of it. It's hard to see why he is so enamored of Nancy, though -- she's a rigid, moralistic priss who holds everyone to her impossibly high standards (for instance, she's opposed to adoption because she's decided, based on nothing at all, that it's against God's will).The story's biggest problem? Well, in some regards the story is rather predictable, with a heartwarming ending that borders on sappy. More subtle handling is given to Silas revisiting his old home, and discovering what has come of the betrayals he's suffered."Silas Marner" is a fascinating little novella, twining together a story about love and family with a subtle message on gender roles. Not bad for such a simple little story.

We loved, loved, loved and were obsessed with the FOTF Radio Theater Narnia series. We listened to the cds for a couple of years almost every time we were in the car. My kids are the kind that don’t like anything new (correction, don’t THINK they like anything new), but I finally convinced them to try listening to the Christmas Carol, and of course they loved that. My dad recently had surgery for a detached retina and had to spend time resting without straining his eyes, so I bought this one and Ben-Hur for him to listen to. He liked them both.The cover for Silas Marner, like the cover for the Christmas Carol, is not very attractive to kids, but let me tell you, once we started, my kids (now 10, 8 and 5) loved this one too! It’s a very sweet story, quite sad but also including some redemptive themes. It looks at the problem of when people who are supposed to support you instead fail you and asks, “What is true friendship?” and “What makes a family?”. My kids love Eppie; the problem I have with her is the same one I have with her character in the book by George Eliot. She is unrealistic because she has no faults. But Silas himself is wonderfully fleshed out, and I feel for Godfrey Cass, who is not quite a villain but a scoundrel who is miserable because he has a conscience.This cd is wonderfully acted and edited, faithful to the spirit of the book, and an absolute delight to listen to!

This book IS slow...it's a Victorian novel, and full of descriptions of the people and the countryside, which makes it seem to drag in places. You have to have patience to read Victorian novels, and remember that at the time they were written, most people did not travel much, a journey of 5 miles in a carriage took an hour in good weather and on good roads, riding a horse that distance would take half an hour to 45 min, depending on the ablility of the horse and skill of the rider. Without TV and movies, people had limited opportunities to see scenes of other places than where they lived, so writers needed to describe scenes in detail. It is this richness in detail that attracts me to Victorian novels. I was not bored at all by this book.Silas Marner is a complex character, a nearsighted weaver, given to "fits" (possibly petit mal seizures), not handsome, and not wealthy enough to overcome his ugliness. He is betrayed by a friend, which puzzles him, rather than angers or embitters him. His neighbors distrust him, though they bear him no ill-will, for he comes from "outside" the village, and lives a short distance outside the village. The rift--such as it is--is partly due to Marner's nature, partly due to the villagers' natures. He becomes a miser, partly because he needs something to love, and gold is what he has....this becomes the object of his affections. Not because he cares to be rich, but simply because he loves the gold.He is robbed one evening. The thief is Dunstan Cass, a younger son of Squire Cass. Dunstan is a drunkard, a wastrel, a thug, and a blackmailer....he is blackmailing his older brother Godfrey (weak willed and spineless, easily led by the stronger-willed and cunning Dunstan), who has married an opium addict and kept the marriage a secret from his family, for fear his father would disinherit him. He pays Dunstan to keep silent. At one point, Godfrey collects rent from a tenent farmer, gives the money to Dunstan to buy his silence, and hopes not to be found out. However, he is unable to raise the money to repay his father for the rent he stole. He gives his prized horse to Dunstan to sell, but Dunstan kills the horse in a hunting accident. Dunstan walks home, past Marner's cottage, sees no one home, remembers the stories of Marner's hoarding of gold, finds the money and makes off with it. Marner comes home from his short errand, finds the money gone, and is devasted. He seeks help in the village to find the theif. But by this time, Danstan is gone, and the help the villagers can give is both confused and useless. The money is never recovered, and Marner almost loses his mind.During the New Year's party at the Manor, Squire Cass, his family (minus Dunstan) and his guests are enjoying themselves, not knowing that Godfrey's secret wife is coming with their child to force Godfrey to acknowlege her and pay child support. However, she drinks opium, loses her way in the snow, and heedlessly falls asleep under a furze bush. The child, about 2 years old, toddles aawy, a short distance to Marner's cottage, and enters while Marner is at the open door, in one of his "fits". He comes to, and sees the little girl asleep at the hearth. He traces the child's footsteps back to where the mother lies, frozen to death, under the furze. He runs to the manor to summon help, for he knows the village doctor will be at the party. Godfrey goes out with the doctor, for he has a suspicion who the woman is. He is relieved to find her dead, for this frees him to marry the girl he really loves.Marner insists on raising the little girl as his own child. Godfrey occasionally gives money or goods to Marner to "help" with the raising of of the little girl (called "Eppie" after Marner's sister, who died in infancy) but the bulk of the assistance comes from the villagers. Impoverieshed themselves, they nevertheless share what they have with the weaver and his child, and gradually their suspicions of Marner ease, and they become friendly with him.Fast Forward, to 16 years later: Eppie has become a beautiful young lady, loved and courted by one of the village boys. Godfrey and his wife, Nancy (whom he married shortly after discovering his first wife dead) are childless. Godfrey finally confesses his early marriage to Nancy, and tells her that Eppie is really his own child. Meanwhile, Dunstan's body is found, in the bottom the the stone pit, long filled with water, now drained. The bags of gold Stolen from Marner are with him. Godfrey is horrified by Dunstan's crime, and wants to make right all the wrongs done to Marner by the Cass family. He and Nancy decide to adopt Eppie, Nancy with the desire of righting a wrong, Godfrey with the desire to salve his conciense (he has a conciense, it's just a weak-willed one). They approach Marner and Eppie in Marner's cottage, and tell them the story, and that they would like to adopt Eppie, and give her all the privileges, comforts, and advantages that wealth can provide. Maner, thinking of Eppie's future, agrees, though it breaks his heart. Eppie, however, thanks Godfrey and Nancy kindly, but turns them down flat. She has no desire to leave the only father she knew, the villagers she's known all her life, and the young man whom she loves. Godfrey and Nancy leave, saddened and chastened.This is a story of redemptive love. Godfrey is redeemed by Nancy's devoted love of him; rather than berating him or leaving him for his early indiscretions and marriage, she continues to love him unconditionally. Silas Marner is redeemed through his love for Eppie; she literally changes his life, and he is a new man after she comes to him. The gold that Dunstan stole is returned to him, and he no longer cares about it. The desire to hoard is gone. The villagers are also redeemed; the man they formally shunned as an odditity and outsider is accepted into their homes as one of their own, and even the most belligerant village man (the farrier) is softened when Eppie comes to visit. Eppie, had she not been saved by Silas Marner, would have been an orphan and sent to a workhouse as soon as she could walk and feed herself.This is also a story about choices, and how making a decision can affect your life. Godfrey choses to marry in secret, and that choice leads to a life of fear, even after his wife's death, fear of people learning his secret, fear of his new wife learning his secret....he is never free of fear, until he chooses to confess his transgression. Marner chooses to keep the child, though he knows doing so will change his life, not necessarily for the better. A good-hearted village woman chooses to help him in this endeavor, rather than continue to shun him, and her life is enriched as a result.The differences in the lives of the rich and the poor is well definied. The rich, dispite all their wealth and privilage are the poorest in spirit. They are the useless idlers, the parasites, the criminals. The villagers, despite being impoverished, owning little or nothing, uneducated, are the richest, in terms of happiness and love.This is a powerful book.

I was "forced" to read this book in junior high school many decades ago. I don't remember understanding nor enjoying it at all. After reading it again now, I see why this was true at that time of my life. The language style, subplots and major story were beyond my thought process. I'm so glad I undertook it now. It's a marvelous story and understandable why it is a classic.

Libro curato e interessante.

It's a beatifully crafted novel set in eighteenth century England. It describes ups and downs of a hardworking man who reaches happy destiny at the end. The author has perfectly woven the subject matter with related facts. This book has a good literary introduction and an informative index as well.

Suite d'un interview de Mona Ozouf

ヴィクトリア朝の庶民視点の物語。元々信心深かったのに、お金だけの人生を歩んでしまった主人公。彼がくじけたとき、偶然得た子供がきっかけで、本来の生き甲斐（もしくは人間愛）に気づくお話です。ハッピー・エンドは個人的な好みですが、男性にも受け入れやすい作家ではないでしょうか。Capuchin Classics は、同じペーパーバックでも、紙質が少々個性的で、より白く、厚く、なめらかで、まるで単行本を読んでいる感触です。書き込みには強そうなので、学生さんにも良いかもしれません。反面、少々重いのですが・・序文やオマケはごくあっさりで、日本の本程度のサービス精神です（笑）

Years ago (how many I try to forget), as a student of English Literature, I had to read Eliot's  Middlemarch (Penguin Classics) by Eliot, George ( 2003 ) , and that proved to be a daunting task. I remember struggling through the novel, trying to make sense of it. But perhaps I simply was not ready for it? Anyway, the experience didn't stimulate me to read more of Eliot's novels, so I shirked away from them for many years. Now, however, I resolved that this simply could not do, but to sort of easy my way in I started by reading 'Silas Marner', as it is not only short but also reputedly one of her more accessible works.And so it proved to be, and then some! From page one onwards I was captivated - as countless other people before me I'm sure - by the tale of 'the weaver of Raveloe'. It is in a way a strange mix: there 's a resemblance to fairy tales (with a golden-haired child suddenly and mysteriously appearing) but at the same time the story is firmly anchored in time at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and though in terms of place all the action is limited to a single small village, to whose inhabitants the next village seems mentally so far of it might as well be on the moon, yet it resonates as universally applicable and feels as if this could happen anywhere and anytime.This is no doubt due in large part to the subtle but very penetrating characterization. Each character is so superbly drawn it becomes quite easy to identify with. Though each of us personally might have reacted differently, the effect on Silas of being falsely accused is described in such a manner that one can fully 'understand' his reaction. Some of the characters are transformed by their experience, others aren't, but each is entirely credible.In short, if you're new to Eliot - as I was - this seems indeed like a very good place to start as 'Silas Marner' is truly a very gripping story. Should it end there you'll have benefited from a thought-provoking book, but I for one feel very motivated now to read more of George Eliot's works, perhaps starting with  The Mill on the Floss (Wordsworth Classics)Middlemarch (Penguin Classics) by Eliot, George ( 2003 )The Mill on the Floss (Wordsworth Classics)