Silas Marner

(Barron's classic novels)

by

247 pages

English language

Published Dec. 30, 1999 by Barron's.

OCLC Number:
41142984

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (1 review)

In rural nineteenth-century England, a weaver, lonely and embittered at the unjust treatment he has received from people he considered to be his friends, finds his only solace in money until he inadvertently becomes the guardian of an orphaned little girl. Includes explanatory notes throughout the text, an introduction discussing the author and the background of the story, and a study guide.

108 editions

reviewed Silas Marner by George Eliot

This book is full of weirdos, rocks and dirt.

5 stars

I love George Eliot’s writing. I was reminded of this one when I saw that @mouse was reading it and went to see if I had a copy. I found it, then I couldn’t put it down. (I’m very suggestible when it comes to George Eliot and Jane Austen) Where Austen is almost all sparkling dialog, I love Eliot’s descriptiveness, the way she captures the feeling of a place down to the dirt and the rocks. The characters are relatably weird and superstitious; the cultural norms and beliefs that shift from village to village make me nostalgic for an unconnected world. Morality in the story is very black and white but that gives it the quality of a fable. It casts Silas Marner as a kind of spiritual figure, an outsider who becomes the moral center; kind of a conduit for the metaphysical life of the village.

Subjects

  • Weavers -- Fiction.
  • Conduct of life -- Fiction.
  • Country life -- England -- Fiction.
  • England -- Fiction.