Silas Marner by George Eliot

I spun Silas Marner by George Eliot in The Classics Club’s spin #36 and have to admit to having been very pleased because I knew the book was short!

However, I still found the first half of Silas Marner to be a hard slog and couldn’t seem to get interested in the plot or the characters. Eventually something clicked and I loved the last half of the book. I’m now planning to re-read the first half.

The story is set ‘in the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farm houses’ near the village of Raveloe, where the title character, a weaver named Silas Marner lived in a quiet spot next to a deserted stone-pit. Silas had moved to the area after being falsely accused of stealing church funds when his best friend set up him up, then stole his girl.

The only real joy in Silas’s life was counting his gold he earned from his work, which he hid under beneath the floor of his home.

When the local Squire’s good-for-nothing son Dunsey stole Silas’s gold, Silas felt as if he had nothing left to live for. Dunsey went missing the same night as the theft, but no one connected the two events and so the identity of the thief was a mystery to Silas and the Raveloe community.

Godfrey, Dunsey’s older brother also had a secret, in his case, he had a wife who was addicted to opium. Dunsey had been threatening to expose Godfrey’s secret family to their father, Squire Cass, who would probably have kicked Godfrey out of his home and his will if he knew of Godfrey’s marriage, so Dunsey’s disappearance was a blessing for Godfrey.

Godfrey had outgrown his short-lived lust for his wife and was now in love with Nancy, the daughter of a neighbour. Both Godfrey and Nancy’s fathers hoped their children would marry and couldn’t understand why Godfrey wouldn’t get on with things.

When Godfrey’s wife decided to bring things to a head by taking their child with her to Squire Cass’s New Year’s Eve party, I became more interested in the story. The wife took opium then fell asleep in the snow during her journey and died, and Silas Marner, of all people, adopted the child, a little girl whose golden hair reminded him of his lost bags of gold. Silas’s love of little Eppie and hers for him brought about his redemption into society.

Godfrey recognised his child but she didn’t recognise him, so he kept quiet about who she was. Godfrey’s story eventually came to a head, also.

I liked that there were some happy endings and that characters who behaved badly were punished, although some characters experienced hardships they didn’t deserve as a result of their connections with those who did. I liked the messages and the characters, and little Eppie, whose character reminded me of Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens.

Silas Marner was book seven of my second Classics Club challenge to read 50 classics before my challenge end date of September 08, 2028.