The importance of community…

Unjustly accused of theft, Silas Marner, his faith in God and man shattered, flees his home and church and sets himself up in a new place where he knows no one and no one knows him. Raveloe is a small rural village with a strong sense of community among the working class, who, as tradition demands, show deference to the local Squire and his feckless sons. Here Silas lives alone, plying his trade as a linen weaver and accumulating a store of gold which he carefully hides and takes out each night to lovingly count. And so his life may have continued, but that one night his hoard of gold is stolen. He is still reeling and depressed from this disaster when, a short time later, a little girl walks through his door one snowy day. Silas discovers the body of the child’s mother nearby, and decides to adopt the girl, whom he calls Hephzibah, or Eppie for short.

Being one of the small minority who didn’t love Middlemarch, I began this one with a lot of hesitation – a book I felt should read rather than one I wanted to. So the pleasure of discovering that I loved it was all the greater for being unexpected. This one has what, for me, Middlemarch lacked – a strong plot. Its brevity is undoubtedly another point in its favour!

It gets off to a bit of a rocky start, as Eliot pontificates for a while about “the poor”, in that supercilious way that suggests they are one homogenous mass, easy to categorise, define and condescend to. “The poor”, apparently, are rather stupid, highly superstitious, easily led, and would fall somewhere not far above beasts of the field in a zoological league table. Whenever one of these 19th century writers talks about “the poor”, I feel I get a better understanding of why people invented guillotines. Happily, however, once she has staked her claim to social and intellectual superiority, she moves on quite quickly, and her depiction of individual members of “the poor” is much more nuanced and insightful than this opening monologue had led me to fear.

I also feared that Eppie might be one of these saccharin, perfect angels that infest Victorian fiction, usually shortly before they die tragically. Happily not! Eppie is wilful, naughty and refreshingly normal, and won past even my pretty strong anti-child defences. Silas’ reaction to her arrival is very well portrayed, as he sees her as a kind of redeeming gift from the God whom he felt had deserted him. Since she’s a very young child on her arrival, Silas, a man with no experience of children, has to reach out for help, forcing him to become part of the village life he had until then shunned. Perhaps he never quite regains his lost trust in man or God to the same level of naivety of his youth, but he learns to love again, and to appreciate neighbourliness and kindness and the value of community.

The other side of the story is darker, and gives it a weight that prevents Silas’ story from being too sweet. The reader knows the identity of the dead woman, although the villagers do not, and we know why she was there that night, in a snow storm. “The poor” may get Eliot’s condescension, but she is stern on the fecklessness of those who live off the labour of others – the Squire class. Squire Cass himself is a man of pride and temper, and his sons have grown up with weak characters and a sense of entitlement that leads them into vice, each of a different kind. Eliot allows the possibility of redemption, but she intends to make her characters work for it.

I particularly enjoyed the occasional intervals where we eavesdrop on the men of the village, gathered of an evening in the local tavern to swap stories and exchange gossip. There’s a lot of humour in these passages, but they also give a great depiction of the social hierarchy of village life, based not so much on wealth as on age and experience, with a sense of earned wisdom being passed down through the generations. Eliot also shows how the women of the village try to ensure that motherless Eppie is given the guidance on womanly matters that Silas can’t provide.

Having been rather rude about Andrew Sachs’ narration of The Power and the Glory recently, I was delighted to find him excellent in this one. Without the distraction of “foreign” accents to contend with, he gives a full range of very good characterisations, each well suited to the social class of the character in question.

In the end, the various strands all come together satisfyingly, managing to be sweet without a surfeit of sugar. An excellent listening experience, and I’m now keen to explore more of Eliot’s work.

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2 people found this helpful

Heart warming story

An atmospheric story of 19th century village life centred on a lonely, miserly weaver and the 2 year old who wanders into his life when her mother dies in the snow.
Superb emotional tale telling involving all the classes in the village.
A classic

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Never Gets Old

Silas Marner
“What is it as you mean by ‘christened?’” he said at last, timidly. “Won’t folks be good to her without it?”
“Dear, dear! Master Marner,” said Dolly, with gentle distress and compassion. “Had you never no father nor mother as taught you to say your prayers, and as there’s good words and good things to keep us from harm?”
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As usual this is a lovely and enriching story from George Eliot, of the time of so many of our best novelists: Dickens, Trollope, Gaskell, Bronte.
Not only a great author, but also one who was anchored in Scriptural precepts, but coined in a lovely way, usually through the sort of dialogue as above. And that particularly chimes with me, as that was my main reason for Christening my babies. Especially as in the 70s when some rather nasty films got inside my head [e.g. the exorcist], and before I had a living knowledge of Scripture, this was my best way to protect!

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beautifully read and a beautiful story.

a nice reading of a story that does everything you want it to. Well done.

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Really really good

Well worth a listen.

George Elliot has aged in some ways, her language can be a struggle because her sentences are so long and parenthesised. There are whole paragraphs that I had to listen to at least 3 times before I "got it" (sometimes didn't). And the ending was a bit too perfect.

Nevertheless, this is a great book and takes you gently and descriptively through its story in a way that is a pleasure. I cried a handful of times, and felt the characters were very well defined.

Great performance too.

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Heartwarming

Lovely story. An easy read and easy to lose yourself in the story, nicely read

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Wow

Story excellent and Mr Andrew Sachs narration was a joy brought the story and characters really life …. Thank you Audible , Andrew Sachs of course George Eliot and everyone involved. Honest please listen you would not regret it.

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Wonderful uplifting story

I loved the story. It is an uplifting and somehow Christmassy tale and the narrator did it justice.

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Excellent narration, good story.

A pleasant listen, I enjoyed the story and it keeps you wanting to know what will happen.
Well written and very well narrated.

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1 person found this helpful

Great Classic

Loved it. A great story beautifully read. Would definitely recommend this audio book. You will not be disappointed.

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1 person found this helpful