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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
This is the first novel I've ever read. Or more like the first one I started reading. I honestly had a hard time reading such back then. But I eventually finished so. It was something I didn't expect myself to like.
I can't believe I've read this twice already. And thinking of reading it again.
(I bought a newer edition last March 10, 2014)
I can't believe I've read this twice already. And thinking of reading it again.
Spoiler
I even cried when Silas Marner lost his gold and when Eppie (adopted daughter) got married.(I bought a newer edition last March 10, 2014)
the way george eliot writes the human condition is breathtaking; i can’t wait to branch out and read some of her other works.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I really disliked this story until about halfway through, when I started to get accustomed to the main characters and it began to win me over. I still find the book’s treatment of the working class too patronizing to really sit well with me, but there is a sentimental thread which manages to satisfy regardless. I’m glad to finally have a sense of what George Eliot is like, but I’m not sure I’ll read her again.
I won’t try and lie to you- when I first started Silas Marner, I stereotyped it as the driest, most tedious book ever written. But as I got into the story and the plot thickened, I became more engrossed than I was going to allow myself to be. The Silas’ tragedy was typical; old man gets his hidden fortune stolen by a no-good trouble maker. But the entrance of Eppie into his life was more interesting and uncommon. She brought him joy and happiness like he had never felt before. His money had brought him what he interpreted as happiness, but it was fake. Eppie’s bubbly personality and cheerfulness turned out to be contagious, and spread to Silas. Her real father had failed her, but Silas, who had cared for her since the minute she came to him, was always a faithful parent. They were all they had in the world; each had been turned out by their kin. Although Silas Marner was a bit slow and boring at the beginning, the core of the story was thought-provoking and touching.
I thought I would be sad and depressed when I first started reading this, before I even made it through a few chapters, poor Silas has been falsely accused, the woman he's engaged to runs off and marries his accuser and Silas flees to Raveloe. Silas exist, he's not living, just working and earning money. Poor Silas is what I said over and over.
Silas is later robbed but shortly after a little girl crawls into his cottage one winter evening, this is the beginning of when Silas' life is forever changed. He comes to life and Eliot captivates and doesn't disappoint me with Silas.
I read the book for a *second* time on audio a few days AFTER finishing it the first time.
Full review on blog: https://booksbythecup.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/silas-marner-review/
IG review: https://instagram.com/p/Bmb1dlsFsSQ/
Silas is later robbed but shortly after a little girl crawls into his cottage one winter evening, this is the beginning of when Silas' life is forever changed. He comes to life and Eliot captivates and doesn't disappoint me with Silas.
I read the book for a *second* time on audio a few days AFTER finishing it the first time.
Full review on blog: https://booksbythecup.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/silas-marner-review/
IG review: https://instagram.com/p/Bmb1dlsFsSQ/
The story of a young-ish man cast out from his obscure religious sect who goes to live a life of isolation in the countryside becomes a miser only to have his life turned around by a series of unexpected events. A novel in the true sense of the word George Eliot gives us the life story of Silas Marner from near-beginning to near-end and executes a complete character arc and any other loose ends are tied up appropriately. Fitting a remarkable amount of information into one-hundred and fifty pages, Eliot does an impressive job of generating dramatic tension almost at will when there's most often none, particularly in a book with a reputation for being boring. Thefts, deaths, drug addicts, all sorts of things appear out of the ether when the banality of country life threatens to go on just a tad too long but never without being believable. In between dramatic scenes Marner and other cast members reflect on human nature in simplistic (being the only way they know how) ways which makes their thought processes very digestible but not easily dismissed.