Silas Marner: Level 2

A cult member, Silas Marner placaes his entire faith, literally and figuratively in the hands of his fellow sect members. They betray him in two ways - one his best friend frames him and persaudes his girlfriend to jilt him and two the other members of the sect believe the lies about him and expell him.Sials turns against human kind becoming a hermit and a miser; until he accidentally becoems the adoptive father of an abandoned baby. Through the child he returns to life, and society and he loves her deeply.However the child is not what she seems, eing in fact the legitimate heir of the local landlord. When this secret is discovered the issue arises - will she choose gold and social status over the plain love of her adoptive father and his fellows?More sentimental and less profound than Middlemarch, and occasionally straying into hyperbole and didactic moral fable-telling Silas Marner is nevertheless one of the classics of English literature. Its plot reveals hidden pockets of 19th century life including their very own version of what modern society calls cults, the class divide, the lure of greed over humanity and much mroe, under a deceptively simple disguise.

A book that never registered in my brain beyond "I've heard of that" turned out to be one of the most amazing stories I have read in a long time. Beautiful, heart warming and richly written. I'm eager to read more of her work now. Some of the sentences in this book are so beautifully crafted that I had to read, then re-read, then read them to my wife. Amazing book

required reading in middle school. Pretty sentimental tale of a miser and his redemptive love of a child.

This is a sweet little book about how one person's life is changed after he loses everything he cherished in his life. After losing all that he thought was most important, he has an opportunity to devote his life to serving and loving someone else, and then his soul is enlarged and he learns what is truly important.I do recommend this book. The story is a bit sad, but it ends very sweetly, and it deals with such timeless questions as honesty, family responsibility, & love. I found the Victorian language overly flowery, at least in the first half, and it made it difficult to stay connected with the story. If one recognizes the ornate language and is prepared for it, however, there should be no problem. There are also several colloquial speech spellings which may confuse at first, but make perfect sense if you just say them out loud.

Silas Marner is a weaver who is thrown out of his village after being wrongly accused of stealing. He settles into life in a new town and becomes consumed with squirreling away every cent he earns. His obsession is only replaced when an orphaned toddler comes into his care. His priorities change completely as his love for his little girl, Eppie, grows. At the same time, Eppie's real father, Godfrey, is a rich man who hides his marriage with Eppie's poor mother from society and refuses to acknowledge that she is his daughter. The story was good and the moral is obvious. It's all about having the right priorities, realizing that all things come to light in the end and your past will inevitably haunt you. It was an interesting read and my first of Eliot's. I'll definitely be reading some more of her classics.

It took me three years to finally finish this book. I found it one rainy day when I was 7, decided it was good enough to pass the time....and hit a brick wall. I would pick it up periodically but still I found myself unable to read it. Finally at the age of ten, I managed to finish it. Imagine my relief at finally being able to rid myself of the torment of having an unfinished book. So the story is bland enough, and the personal emotions attached to this book great enough that I absolutely cannot remember the plot. I do think that at the time I thought it mediocre at best.

Solitary simple-hearted weaver Silas Marner has lived alone for 15 years amassing a hoard of money. One New Year's Eve he finds a baby girl left abandoned by his cottage; for the next 9 years he fosters her and she becomes all in all to him. It transpires that she is connected with the son of the village Squire. A novel of rural England before the Industrial Revolution. Filmed several times.

Not as good as I remember, but wonderful nonetheless. The earliest section of the book (Marner's setup by William) felt oddly out of place with the rest of the book, but once you get past that, it's a great story. Silas's relationship with Eppie reminds me of Jean Valjean's relationship with Cosette to the point where I question whether the father/adopted daughter was a common theme of the era?

This too I had to read for a class when I was much younger, and I hated it!! Once again, I've read it on my own and I fell in love with it. Great book! One of my favorites.

This is a book which countless teenagers have been forced to read as part of the school syllabus. For some reason I didn't have to read it when I was at school. I'm glad that's the case, because I've a feeling this would not have appealed to me very much when I was a teenager.

As has been the case when I've read other novels by George Eliot, it took a while for me to become fully engaged with the narrative. But once the links between the various characters became clear, listening to the audiobook (beautifully narrated by Nadia May) became a joy. Essentially a story about the redemption which can come through love, the novel has something of the fairytale about it. Eliot might be criticised for sentimentality, but this is ultimately a feel-good story with an important moral. Added to this are Eliot's deft characterisation, elegant prose and the sure manner in which she evokes Victorian village life. Overall, listening to this was a most enjoyable experience.

In Silas Marner, George Eliot has crafted a heartwarming fable woven with incisive commentary on religion, community and the true meaning of wealth. The title character starts out as a faithful member of a religious commune, poised to marry the love of his life. He soon finds himself framed for theft and is exiled from the community. Betrayed, disillusioned and heartbroken, Marner settles on the edge of a faraway village. He becomes a hermit, finding solace in counting his precious stash of gold coins each night. He interacts with the outside world only as required to sell the cloth he weaves and accumulate more gold. But fate intervenes in Marner's life once (well, twice) more. He is forced to engage with the village community, and the rest of the story follows his resulting growth and redemption.Though the material is more simple than that of her larger works, Silas Marner still showcases Eliot's masterful (but admittedly dense) literary style, signature social commentary and humanist beliefs. Her keen observation of human nature helps her writing speak to readers hundreds of years and thousands of miles distant. I heartily recommend Silas Marner to all lovers of literature. Due to the book's modest length, it is especially suited to someone looking for a taste of Eliot's work but who may not have the time or patience to take on Middlemarch. Or the world-weary intellectual looking for an uplifting, fairytale-like story to restore their faith in humanity.

The introduction writer was correct - this novel is rather like Thomas Hardy but *not annoying*. Possibly because the characters are actually likable and understandable in their motivations.

Generally a fun, moving little tale. I found Dunsie a cartoonish villain and the disposal of Eppie's mom rather heartless, but I loved the themes of chance and choice that thread through these characters lives - they can't control their lives, but whenever they give up their moral agency, bad stuff happens.

I also loved the narratorial voice at the beginning. It was like George Eliot was telling me a bedtime story.

What a lovely, heartwarming tale. A really feelgood book. A definite must read again. 

Simplistic.

Re-read 9/20/17. Still meh. Reads more like a church parable than a story with interesting characters. Compelling to read but unsatisfying in the end. One too many bows put on the mysteries. Maybe I should give it two stars instead of three.

I read this in high school, but somewhat haphazardly. I appreciated it more when I was in the process of reading all Eliot's books, which I eventually did--even Scenes from Clerical Life, which I managed to find, in two volumes, at a Library used books sale in 2012--acquried on the last day of the sale, when the books were free!

This used to be required reading in high schools. It doesn't seem to be any longer. I don't have a decided opinion on this, since most people hate the books they are assigned, but I loved it.Because of its concision, I go against the grain of received literary opinion and judge this to be George Eliot's best book. Its simplicity saves it. Eliot's characteristic periphrasis does little harm here, and the story redeems all the whole. Eliot (Evans) was surely an interesting figure in 19th century life. Her pessimism, "fearless realism," and principled opposition to romanticism can be seen very well in this great little novel. When I first read it, I was disappointed in the ending. I wanted it happpier. I wanted Silas's old friends in the religious sect to welcome him back. But that was tragic backstory, and, like in life, the story here is just happy enough. Not ALL possible plot points find idealized resolution.But then, I was a pious member of an obscure Christian sect when I first read the book. Twenty years later, it seemed perfect.And so it still seems, to me.

I've been going through the classics lately and don't have much good to say from them. This is the first so far that I can say that I liked. I think it's my modern perspective looking at it to think this, but I think it could have been much shorter. The first half, at least, of the book seemed to be too drawn out and didn't seem to connect things till much later in the story. I see all the connections now but I don't see that it was needed to put so much detail in it. I also like the fact that Eppie didn't want to have money. Most of the characters I have run into so far in older books, namely (and clichely) Pride and Prejudice, have wanted almost nothing but money and material wealth. But Eppie loved Silas and her way of life and didn't want to change. That made me appreciate the book much more.

Digital audiobook read by Nadia MaySilas Marner is a weaver who was banished from his small religious community on a false charge of theft. He moves to the village of Ravensloe, where he leads a reclusive, miserly life as the town’s weaver. His gold is stolen from him, however, reinforcing his belief that everything is against him. Until … returning home on a snowy evening he finds a baby girl asleep at his hearth. Her mother has died in the snow, and Silas adopts the child, believing that his gold has somehow been symbolically returned in the form of this delightful little girl.A classic tale of the redemptive power of love, first published in 1861. As is typical of the novels of the era, the plot includes numerous coincidences that stretch this reader’s tolerance. There is much misery, but Eliot does give us a few moments of joy, and an ending full of hope. I did think Eliot was somewhat heavy-handed in relaying her message, however. I know this was assigned reading when I was in high school, and I’m sure I relied on the Cliff’s Notes. Reading now, I’m reminded of the writing style of Charles Dickens. Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans and converted to Evangelicalism while still in school. She later disavowed it, but those roots are clear in this tale. In private, however, she became estranged from her family when she moved to London as a single woman. There she met George Henry Lewes, and lived with him for some twenty years, despite the fact that he was already married. He encouraged her to write and publish. She was somewhat notorious for this open relationship and felt no one would read her novels, so adopted the pseudonym of George Eliot. Nadia May does a fine job performing the audiobook. However, I did have trouble staying focused. That isn’t her fault, it’s simply the prevalent style of writing of the mid-19th century.

Read half. Just too laborious at the wrong time. Don't want to pick it back up now, nearly two years later.

A story of redemption. Eliot teaches a simple lesson: When we let go of the goods we get the gold. Simplistic but real. Love is the answer.

Is the story about fate or the fairness of a god who sees what is hidden and rewards or punishes accordingly? Maybe it's just a comment on the human condition.

Still wonderful, a grownup child's story.

I read somewhere that no-one reads George Eliot these days. Well, her writing can be a bit dense at times, but Silas Marner is well worth reading. The plot is almost fairytale-like. Silas, a weaver, has been driven from his home in a northern industrial city after (false) accusations of stealing money from the chapel sect he belonged to – and the guy he knows did it, his best friend, then stole his girlfriend! He now lives by an old quarry outside the close-knit English village of Raveloe. Not surprisingly, he’s now bitter and twisted, his faith in god and humanity gone. He has nothing left in life except his work – and the gold he accumulates from it. He’s grudgingly tolerated but not welcomed in the village, and has turned into a sad lonely miserable miser, suffering occasional fits, truly an outsider. One day, his hoard of gold is stolen, and on a snowy day soon after, a golden-haired toddler wanders into the open door of his cottage, the girl’s presumed mother found dead nearby. Silas sees the girl as a gift from providence in exchange for his gold, adopts the baby girl and things develop from there... The girl grows up... Silas changes... The plot is credible and realistic, despite some improbable coincidences. It’s fascinating to see how superstitious views still flourished, how people weighed and interpreted evidence about unusual happenings, weighing up rational against superstitious interpretations, echoing lively controversies in theology and philosophy at the time about the nature of evidence that George Eliot was herself very deeply involved in.What’s really wonderful is that this is a story of ordinary village life among the poorer classes, with all its characters, prejudices and superstitions, church, pub, all pictured just as they would have been in the early 19th century. This no doubt comes from George Eliot’s childhood recollections. No-one else was writing this sort of stuff in English literature at the time. Farm hands, farriers and the like were supposed to be just forelock-tuggers and cap-doffers with walk-on parts. Novel readers were upper class (the only ones who could afford books) and expected upper class people doing upper-class things in their books; they didn’t see ‘the common people’ as suitable central figures in their literature. The antagonistic reviews of the time – even her own publisher’s views – show how dangerous this was seen. One contemporary review refers to “...these dull clowns... whose ideas and imagery seldom rise above the level of their native dunghills”, another says “We see the people amid all their grovelling cares, with all their coarseness, ignorance and prejudice – poor, paltry, stupid, wretched, well-nigh despicable.” Perhaps, but fascinating too.No well-bred woman at the time would have ventured into the public bar of a village pub, but George Eliot gives us an extraordinary chapter of the bar talk and banter between the farrier, the butcher, etc. at The Rainbow. In the closing chapters, (spoilers warning) when Eppie (the golden-haired baby girl) has grown into a beauty, and her higher class origins (daughter of the village squire from a shameful marriage he kept secret) made public, she gets the offer of being accepted by the squire and his new wife as their daughter... but she and Silas Marner turn it down. This must have seemed revolutionary, and in very bad taste at the time. It’s the complete opposite of the popular plot of the time, where the waif discovers his upper crust origins, his rightful inheritance, reveals the skulduggery involved to disinherit him, and takes his ‘proper’ place in society. What a girl George Eliot was!After Silas Marner was published, ordinary people started appearing in more books, and literature was all the better for it... A short, important, memorable and heart-warming book with a good story, albeit a little difficult to get through the dense writing style at times.

A complete surprise from start to finish - Eliot still rules!

I don't like my chances of being able to say anything new about something that has been around since 1861. The story is a simple one, and the themes are both eternal and easily discerned : redemption, the emptiness of money compared to love and the hypocrisy of those vested with wealth, prestige and power. For me, the novel sagged after the first few chapters, but picked up again, and then some, shortly after the half way mark. Even in a more leisurely age, Eliot must have had a purpose in introducing villagers that seem to spend a lot of time sitting around looking jolly, and taking many pages to do so. A couple of prominent characters, the pristine Eppie and her consort Aaron are less than interesting, but Silas and the tortured Godfrey Cass more than make up for it. The last couple of chapters really tugged at the heart, but it was honestly a bit of a slog to get there.

A good book overall; though definitely not in the period of Eliot's ripe penmanship. The descriptions are beautiful, and the emotions are very real.

A book you haven’t read since high school is on the list for the 2016 Reading Challenge.Synopsis: A young weaver, Silas Marner, is betrayed by his best friend and subsequently leaves his home to find a place to live near a small village. Although he is prosperous, he exists as a poverty stricken hermit with no real friends. One night he is robbed and although this puts him in a more sympathetic light with the townspeople, he goes into a deep depression. During one of catatonic episodes, a two year old girl toddles into his home and changes his life for the better. The mystery of her parentage and of the disappearance on Marner's money are eventually solved.Review: There are huge portions of this story that I'd forgotten since the days in Betty Swyers's classroom. Although the language of the 1800s tends toward verbosity, Silas Marner is much less dense that Middlemarch, one of Eliot's other books. The 'truth will out' and the relentless progression of time are two of the main themes of the story, although unlike many writers in this same time period, the happy ending adds a touch of pleasant finality to Eliot's tale.

I had been put off George Eliot by my English teacher at school, who had a strong dislike of 'Middlemarch' that soon communicated itself to me. In a way this was a good thing, as I soon found myself enjoying 'Silas Marner' much more than I had expected, having expected to hate it. It is a convincing illustration of parochial English country life, with the short-sightedness and inherent distrust in all things 'foreign' typical of society at that time. Eliot is easier to read than I thought she would be, and she is also a fine storyteller. Maybe it's time to take another look at 'Middlemarch.'

Set in the early 19th century, Eliot's narrative accurately features the lifestyle, values and traditions of the period. Ethics, religion and the industrial revolution all play a part in this beautiful story. I realize it is not to everyone's taste but I find the old-fashioned language is a delight, describing the actions and feelings of the characters so beautifully.