Silas Marner

I know that Silas Marner’s actually quite a famous book, but I found pretty forgettable.  As in I literally forgot that I read this book.  I read most of it on a train in one go, and I guess that must be it because it’s not bad enough to be worth deliberately forgetting.  In fact, I suspect that George Eliot was far more interesting as a person than her book is.  Shockingly, my love of feminism extends to the women who laid the foundations in the times before feminism was a thing, and Eliot’s demands that her work be taken seriously (even if to do it she had to use a male pen name) always appealed to me.  Also, I had this teacher called Mr Elliott in school who named his son George, so there’s that too.

As I said, it’s a pretty simple story.  Silas Marner is framed for a theft he didn’t commit by his best friend who subsequently steals Silas’s fiancée when he is banished.  Moving down south (a little bit) to the village of Raveloe, he shuns company and loves only money until he too is the victim of a theft.  He decides that this the perfect time in his life to become a father when he finds a child with a dying mother.  Literally no-one objects to this, because apparently the law of finders-keepers used to apply to orphans.  The fact that he names the kid Hephzibah should in itself have been a hint that giving the lonely hermit a child might not be the best of ideas.  The only time anyone questions whether Eppie should be with Silas is years later when her father decides that he’s ready to do some actual parenting. 

Silas Marner is pretty much what I expected it to be.  It reminded me quite a lot of the Lyrical Ballads of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge.  There’s this whole celebration of country life and the low down rural communities going on.  The pursuit of wealth and love of money is the main evil in the book; Silas is stolen from by a rich and spoilt younger brother of the local gentry and Eppie’s golden hair is shown to be more than enough replacement for his actual literal gold that was nicked.  Personally, I’d rather have the precious metal, but it takes all sorts.

My main criticism of this book is that it is too short.  It’s an enjoyable read but there’s this massive 16 year ellipsis and we go from Silas struggling with how to discipline a toddler to him being the proud father of a wonderful young woman beloved by all Raveloe.  It’s frustrating.  I want more detail about their lives, the way the book ends would be so much more impactful if we were given this.  And, just maybe, the book would have been more memorable for it.

He second of my great train ride books is The Graduate by Charles Webb.