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booking_along 's review for:
Silas Marner
by George Eliot
The biggest surprise for me in this book was that the "older man adopts baby" thing that i always heard about when i heard anyone talk about this book... only happens in the last 1/3 of this book. That is always something that surprises/confuses me with classics.
Why is it okay to talk about things that happen pretty late in the book when its a classics and make exactly that part of the most discussed part even though that is actually just a tiny little section of the book to begin with?
If anybody would do that with a modern book and talk about anything that happens in a book in the last 1/3 everyone would explode and shout about spoilers and make the review regret ever meeting the internet.
Yet with classics its okay?!?!
Okay sorry... rant over.
Lets talk about the book itself.
As i said i was surprised with how different the actual plot of this book was to what i heard about it before.
Its much more a book about the simpler life of the very day people during the victorian times, the poorer or common folks instead of the higher classes. Which i really enjoyed. It was lovely to see a story being told from the everyday man. And Eliot really did a great job describing that type of life.
Interestingly enough, fitting with some of the newest "trends" currently going about, this book actually is quite a bit about figuring out what brings you joy in life, what makes you happy and doing exactly that even if it might not be the typical way of life. Or at least that is what i got from most of this book.
I also really enjoyed silas marner as a character, he was different, quiet and clearly a bit unsure about how he fitted into the world, he enjoyed his work as a weaver and had a good amount of bad things happen to him throughout his life. And even though he had to deal with a lot he kept on going in one way or another.
I can't say that i enjoyed most of the other characters in this book but i don't think that the reader really was supposed to like or enjoy those characters. I think mostly they where just there to give a bit of a background to Silas Marner and his life and in that sense it did work pretty well.
the way that money was treated in this book was also really well done. It was a big topic -as it is in everyones life- but it was handled really well in my option. Eliot didn't push a specific mind set onto the reader -that for example being poor is horrible or being rich is bad- she simply showcased different ways of living and mindsets to money. She showed good and bad of having and not having it, how people treat others for having or not having it and how happy people can be having money or not having a lot of money.
I also thought that Eliot really timed this book very well. She managed to pace Marner's life from early/mid twenties through his old age in a short amount of pages without rushing it or making it feel as if she left out big moments that would have been important to understand or connect to the character.
Which i do confess being a little surprised by since i have read others of her books which i found a bit long winded which made me a bit sceptical going into this book, not knowing how she would handle her normally long winded introductions to characters in such a short book.
But she did it very well!
And lastly, i really enjoyed reading about an unmarried man during those times adopting a baby simply because he sees that the baby needs someone to care for it. Its one of the few classics where its more about the child and what it needs instead of adopting because of greed or necessity and that was very lovely to read about.
In my eyes this is actually a very under appreciated classic, especially by Eliot herself!
Its defiantly one i will reread in the future and think a lot more people should pick up and discuss!
Also my enjoyment of this book could have had something to do with the fact that was yet another buddy read with the wonderful courtney! Very possible ;)
Why is it okay to talk about things that happen pretty late in the book when its a classics and make exactly that part of the most discussed part even though that is actually just a tiny little section of the book to begin with?
If anybody would do that with a modern book and talk about anything that happens in a book in the last 1/3 everyone would explode and shout about spoilers and make the review regret ever meeting the internet.
Yet with classics its okay?!?!
Okay sorry... rant over.
Lets talk about the book itself.
As i said i was surprised with how different the actual plot of this book was to what i heard about it before.
Its much more a book about the simpler life of the very day people during the victorian times, the poorer or common folks instead of the higher classes. Which i really enjoyed. It was lovely to see a story being told from the everyday man. And Eliot really did a great job describing that type of life.
Interestingly enough, fitting with some of the newest "trends" currently going about, this book actually is quite a bit about figuring out what brings you joy in life, what makes you happy and doing exactly that even if it might not be the typical way of life. Or at least that is what i got from most of this book.
I also really enjoyed silas marner as a character, he was different, quiet and clearly a bit unsure about how he fitted into the world, he enjoyed his work as a weaver and had a good amount of bad things happen to him throughout his life. And even though he had to deal with a lot he kept on going in one way or another.
I can't say that i enjoyed most of the other characters in this book but i don't think that the reader really was supposed to like or enjoy those characters. I think mostly they where just there to give a bit of a background to Silas Marner and his life and in that sense it did work pretty well.
the way that money was treated in this book was also really well done. It was a big topic -as it is in everyones life- but it was handled really well in my option. Eliot didn't push a specific mind set onto the reader -that for example being poor is horrible or being rich is bad- she simply showcased different ways of living and mindsets to money. She showed good and bad of having and not having it, how people treat others for having or not having it and how happy people can be having money or not having a lot of money.
I also thought that Eliot really timed this book very well. She managed to pace Marner's life from early/mid twenties through his old age in a short amount of pages without rushing it or making it feel as if she left out big moments that would have been important to understand or connect to the character.
Which i do confess being a little surprised by since i have read others of her books which i found a bit long winded which made me a bit sceptical going into this book, not knowing how she would handle her normally long winded introductions to characters in such a short book.
But she did it very well!
And lastly, i really enjoyed reading about an unmarried man during those times adopting a baby simply because he sees that the baby needs someone to care for it. Its one of the few classics where its more about the child and what it needs instead of adopting because of greed or necessity and that was very lovely to read about.
In my eyes this is actually a very under appreciated classic, especially by Eliot herself!
Its defiantly one i will reread in the future and think a lot more people should pick up and discuss!
Also my enjoyment of this book could have had something to do with the fact that was yet another buddy read with the wonderful courtney! Very possible ;)