Silas Marner by George Eliot

Released: 1994 edition
Publishers: Wordsworth Classics
Format: Paperback
Pages: 154
My Rating: 2/5




Although the shortest of George Eliot's novels, Silas Marner is one of her most admired and loved works. It tells the sad story of the unjustly exiled Silas Marner - a hand loom linen weaver of Raveloe in the agricultural heartland of England - and how he is restored to life by the unlikely means of the orphan child Eppie. Silas Marner is a tender and moving tale of sin and repentance set in a vanished rural world which holds the reader's attention until the last page as Eppie's bonds of affection for Silas are put to the test.

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This was a classic that I was unsure about. This is a novel I studied at University and when it came round to studying and analysing the text more I appreciated it more than when I read it the first time round. The first time round characters infuriated me, like the Cass family; Godfrey was Eppie's biological father but wasn't interested in her until she was old enough to marry and then wondered why she didn't want to accept Godfrey as a father, who unlike Silas, hadn't been there for all of her life. Then we have Godfrey's brother Dunstan, who if we take the literal name and transform it slightly it makes Dunce (which he is), he is a blackmailer, a liar and a horse killer. I think he was the most hated character for me throughout this novel. He is asked to sell a horse, when known how much its worth, he sells it and offers to take the horse to the new owner, upon the way killing the horse in a stupid risk. Dunstan then stumbles across Silas Marner's home where he happens to find all of Silas' money and runs off with it. Then that is where the story of Dunstan stops until the very end of the novel. Where he stupidly, a luckily gets his comeuppance; with Dunstan thinking he has all this money he takes a stumble and falls down a well and dies. Luckily for Silas his money has been in that well all of these years.

I think the reader feels most sympathy and empathy towards Silas Marner. Our protagonist has come from the city to the country and works as weaver for the small community. He stumbles across a dead woman and small child, still alive, and as no one will care for her Silas takes the child and brings her up, as well as Godfrey offering money and help from Dolly Winthrop who acts like Eppie's, the child's, godmother. I enjoyed reading about their life and how Silas coped bringing up a child and the help he is given from the community. Eppie's upbringing was informative and she kind of represents the role of the new woman at this period as she is proposed to by Dolly's son, Aaron, and accepts; she accepts Silas as her father more than her own biological father who she happily denies any want to be near.

Overall I couldn't decide what to rate this book. I enjoyed it, it had a good mixture of bits that infuriated me as well as elements of happiness. Yet I did not love nor loathe this book. I would say it is definitely worth a read for those interested in the way the 19th Century novels worked and how female writers struggled to get their work published and usually gave themselves pen names such as George Eliot, whose birth name is Mary Ann Evans.

Enjoy x

GoodReads:  Silas Marner 

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