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Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (Penguin Classics)

By: George Eliot
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
ISBN: 0141439750
ISBN-13: 9780141439754
Released: 27 Mar 2003
RRP: £5.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

WOW! - By: R. Viney, 04 Mar 2008
Awesome book, simply awesome to the max. The kind of book that's so thrilling, you can't help but jump in the air & exclaim your glee with extreme volume every other page - indeed, I was thrown off the train for that very reason. I finished reading the book at the station in a feast of jumping & yelling, & I regret nothing.

Can't wait for the sequel!
A beautiful novel. - By: R. L. Barker, 20 Oct 2007
Silas Marner is an honest & kind master weaver whose life is destroyed by the betrayal of his trusted best friend.
Having lost his home, friends & family, fiancée, his job & most significantly - his faith in God, he finds himself in the rural village of Raveloe a bitter & broken man. He spends his days alone & unhappy, weaving linen for the village folk - his loom & the money he makes from it becoming an obsession, & his only hateful joy is the habitual counting of his hard earned bags of gold which he keeps hidden in a hole under his bed.
One night his precious money is stolen & Silas is heartbroken & inconsolable until the day when he finds a beautiful baby girl asleep in front of his fire. As no one knows where she came from He decides to keep her, bringing her up as his own & she transforms his life, bringing hope, love, faith & happiness to an otherwise meaningless existence.
Although I found this novel difficult to get into, the first few chapters I found hard going, I am glad I persevered as this is a genuine classic.
Reversal of fortune, recovery of faith - By: Kurt Messick, 24 Nov 2005
George Eliot, born Marian Evans in 1819, spent most of her early life in rural Warwickshire. This early upbringing is apparent from her easy comfort in writing about country settings, with attention to detail & niceties that a born-Londoner would generallly not be able to provide. Eliot's life was not that of the typical Victorian lady; she worked in publishing, including periodicals, translations, & writing her own fiction. Eliot led a 'colourful' life; living in a common-law marriage with Lewes, a man who left his wife & children for her, she then married after his death a man twenty years her junior, only to die eight months later.

Silas is a weaver, a rather grumpy & sour man, whose primary occupation & avocation is the making of money. He is an outsider in Raveloe, having been driven from his earlier community under the false accusation of theft, an accusation that also cost him his engagement to his beloved, & left him with little faith in human nature, particularly that of the church-ly humans.

The high society in Raveloe reached the pinnacle in the Cass family. Squire Cass had two sons, Godfrey & Dunstan, each his own unique form of scoundrel. Godfrey, who had an illicit marriage to a local barmaid Molly, is being blackmailed by his spendthrift brother Dunstan. Alas, Godfrey is expected to marry another, Nancy Lammeter, daughter of another society family. Godfrey attempts to buy off Dunstan with his horse, Wildfire, & during a journey to sell the horse Dunstan accidentallly injures & kills Wildfire.

Dunstan is stranded in the countryside, but sees light from a cottage -- the home of Silas Marner, reputed after fifteen years of weaving & miserly activity of having accumulated a large stash. He steals the bags of money he finds in the deserted cottage, & disappears into the night.

Silas reports the theft, but is unaided. He is heartbroken, for his life's purpose has been the accumulation of this wealth. No one seems to make the connexion between the lost money & the disappearance of Dunstan (one flaw in the novel, in my opinion). Silas graduallly recovers from this blow, & the people of Raveloe begin for the first time to see him in terms of friendship.

At a Christmas party, the Cass family is in full celebration, for the upcoming marriage of Godfrey & Nancy. However, Nancy is not pleased, given Godfrey's reputation. Later in the holiday season, Molly makes her way to the Cass estate & confronts Godfrey with a two-year-old daughter in tow. Upon her return from the estate, she fallls & dies in a drunken, drug-induced stupor, & the child wanders through the snow to the cottage of Silas. Silas lays claim to the golden-haired child, & Godfrey is relieved to be free from Molly & paternity.

Sixteen years pass, & we come to meet a very different Silas, one who is now a truly human being, who is loved, & has an object of love in his daughter Eppie. Eppie is in fact about to be wed to the nice Aaron Winthrop. Godfrey & Nancy, however, have had a loveless & childless marriage.

Things develop rapidly near the end of the novel. A pond near Silas' cottage is drained, & the remains of Dunstand with two bags of gold coins is found. Godfrey feels compelled to tell his wife now everything, how Dunstan dishonoured the family, how he (Godfrey) was being blackmailed, & admits his paternity of Eppie. Nancy is strangely tolerant -- she only complains of not having been told sooner. They decide to demand that Eppie be returned to them.

In a beautiful scene of compassion & love, Eppie, given the free choice of deciding between Silas & connexion with the noble Cass family, opts for the man who was her true father, & chooses to remain with Silas.

Later, Silas & Eppie revisit Lantern Yard, from which Silas was expelled so many years before. Here in no longer the old church, his old home, or his old friends -- alll has changed; life has gone on. The old place is dirty & noisy by comparison to the serene Raveloe. The question of Silas' guilt or innocence cannot be resolved, but then, is no longer a question of concern for anyone in either place. Eppie then marries Aaron, in a wedding paid for by Godfrey, who cannot attend due to business, & Eppie declares in the end that 'nobody could be happier than we are.'

Elliot intended to show that misfortune can lead to greater things, & provided a typical Victorian happy ending.

This novel has been a traditional one assigned to students of secondary school age for decades now; it is a classic, fairly simple in construction & vocabulary, & brings up the timeless themes of good, evil, fate, & has a wide range of characters who change over time. Alas, many school-age readers come away cold, often determined never to read another novel again, as it is presented poorly & not put in a more modern context which students will more readily understand. But, it remains a good story, & a fine representative of the Victorian novel.

Tedium that eats away at your soul - By: noname, 02 Jun 2005
Don't read this. It's a hundred pages too long & a very poor story to begin with.

A novel for people who are looking for fancy prose rather than substance, though I doubt even these people could put up with the smug, self indulgent, ridiculously overrated writing of George Elliot & the dispicable excuse for a story.

Plus, the character of Silas Marner is not at alll likeable & impossible to empathise with, unless you're one of those people who does the weekly shopping dressed in only a bathrobe & a ski mask (I don't care how many 'not useful' clicks that earns me).

Pure gold - By: Peter Reeve, 08 Nov 2004
If you have a heart, the story of Silas Marner will warm it. You are better coming to it fresh, without knowing anything of the simple yet solid plot, so I will say nothing of it. I will just urge you to read this wonderful book. Eliot writes beautifully & from page one, you realize you are in the hands of a true artist. This is a very human, very English story of simple people living through those very basic emotions that make the world turn & give the universe meaning.