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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
"... honest folk, born and bred in a visible manner, were mostly not overwise or clever -- at least, not beyond such a matter as knowing the signs of the weather"
"... a pleasant sense of scornful superiority ..."
"To them pain and mishap present a far wider range of possibilities than gladness and enjoyment: their imagination is almost barren of the images that feed desire and hope, but is all overgrown by recollections that are a perpetual pasture to fear. 'Is there anything you can fancy that you would like to eat?' I once said to an old labouring man, who was in his last illness, and who had refused all the food his wife had offered him. 'No,' he answered, 'I've never been used to nothing but common victual, and I can't eat that.' Experience had bred no fancies in him that could raise the phantasm of appetite."
"... where it was never reached by the vibrations of the coach-horn, or of public opinion."
"But there might be such a thing as a man's soul being loose from his body, and going out and in, like a bird out of its nest and back; and that was how folks got over-wise, for they went to school in this shell-less state to those who could teach them more than their neighbours could learn with their five senses and the parson."
"The results of confession were not contingent, they were certain; whereas betrayal was not certain."
"... said the Squire, who regarded physic and doctors as many loyal churchmen regard the church and the clergy -- tasting a joke against them when he was in health, but impatiently eager for their aid when anything was the matter with him."
"... a pleasant sense of scornful superiority ..."
"To them pain and mishap present a far wider range of possibilities than gladness and enjoyment: their imagination is almost barren of the images that feed desire and hope, but is all overgrown by recollections that are a perpetual pasture to fear. 'Is there anything you can fancy that you would like to eat?' I once said to an old labouring man, who was in his last illness, and who had refused all the food his wife had offered him. 'No,' he answered, 'I've never been used to nothing but common victual, and I can't eat that.' Experience had bred no fancies in him that could raise the phantasm of appetite."
"... where it was never reached by the vibrations of the coach-horn, or of public opinion."
"But there might be such a thing as a man's soul being loose from his body, and going out and in, like a bird out of its nest and back; and that was how folks got over-wise, for they went to school in this shell-less state to those who could teach them more than their neighbours could learn with their five senses and the parson."
"The results of confession were not contingent, they were certain; whereas betrayal was not certain."
"... said the Squire, who regarded physic and doctors as many loyal churchmen regard the church and the clergy -- tasting a joke against them when he was in health, but impatiently eager for their aid when anything was the matter with him."
This was my intro to George Eliot. The style and content certainly fit the times; a young man is betrayed by his best friend and framed for theft, whereupon he flees his hometown to an even smaller sleepy English farming community to continue his lonely miserable existence in peace, away from the hypocrisies of people or the Church. Somewhere along the line, his perfectly sealed shell of existence is infiltrated: first when his life savings are stolen from his home, and second, when he finds a small orphaned child one winter's night. Silas adopts the girl and from that point on, he forsakes his miserly shuttered life for the quaint domestic throes of parenting within a community. But of course, there has to be a conflict. I won't spoil the plot, but it's not anything that should raise your blood pressure in alarm and I'm sure you have a vague clue of what it could possibly be. In other words, "Silas Marner" does not tarry far from the pastoral tone in which it begins, nor does it leave much to the imagination. I had the plot figured out by the second chapter.
Any book that I am able to finish (and this one I did), I typically designate a token two stars. Silas earned an extra star for Eliot's incisive social observations and her keen ability to see through peoples' exteriors to their most primal motivations, fears, and insecurities. Underneath the cloyingly saccharine motifs and pastoral pace that the story takes exists a world teeming with not so Victorian passions and intrigues. I also felt Eliot made very original and apt metaphors using nature as comparison for human behavior.
I have Eliot's "Mill on the Floss" patiently waiting on my shelf to be read and I do look forward to opening it soon as I am to understand that thematically and content-wise, it is a bit less conventional than "Silas Marner".
A good read!, but probably won't warrant a second.
Any book that I am able to finish (and this one I did), I typically designate a token two stars. Silas earned an extra star for Eliot's incisive social observations and her keen ability to see through peoples' exteriors to their most primal motivations, fears, and insecurities. Underneath the cloyingly saccharine motifs and pastoral pace that the story takes exists a world teeming with not so Victorian passions and intrigues. I also felt Eliot made very original and apt metaphors using nature as comparison for human behavior.
I have Eliot's "Mill on the Floss" patiently waiting on my shelf to be read and I do look forward to opening it soon as I am to understand that thematically and content-wise, it is a bit less conventional than "Silas Marner".
A good read!, but probably won't warrant a second.
I read this in high school. I seem to recall enjoying it more than most.
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
As much as I appreciate style of the dialogue this story was lacklustre in both plot and depth of character. I am sorry George Eliot, I am sure there is a reason people still read your work but I just can not get into your style of writing. For me it was a clunky read with no real flow to the plot.
Read for my Victorian Literature module.
Eliot manages to encapsulate the importance of child innocence and appreciation through the relationship she creates between Eppie and Silas. The novel is, ultimately, rather sweet - it isn't long-winded or morally imposes on it's reader but rather sweetly reminds them of the importance of the 'good old days' and rural life, shying them away from materialism and, as what was rising at the time, the want for industrialisation.
A rather novel novel, quaint and quietly powerful.
Eliot manages to encapsulate the importance of child innocence and appreciation through the relationship she creates between Eppie and Silas. The novel is, ultimately, rather sweet - it isn't long-winded or morally imposes on it's reader but rather sweetly reminds them of the importance of the 'good old days' and rural life, shying them away from materialism and, as what was rising at the time, the want for industrialisation.
A rather novel novel, quaint and quietly powerful.
I vacillated between three and four stars on this book, then rounded up because for the most part I really enjoyed it. This is the second book I've read by George Elliot, the first being Adam Bede. For the most part, I enjoyed this book almost as much as I enjoyed Adam Bede. Elliot's writing is beautiful and she has a sense of realism and detail that I find invigorating and often challenging as a reader. What ultimately turned me off of this book was the ending, which felt abrupt and forced. For the first hundred or so pages the story unwinds slowly and masterfully but towards the end it felt like someone told Elliot she had to finish the story off in 20 pages and she listened to them. The ending feels rushed and abrupt, the characters less fully realized at the ending than the beginning. Which is tragic, because I mostly enjoyed this book and really wanted to love it.