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Title: Silas Marner (Longman Fiction) by Addison Wesley Longman, George Eliot ISBN: 0-582-27531-8 Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company Pub. Date: January, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.86

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Average Customer Rating: 3.72 (83 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Simple Truths -- Superbly Expressed
Comment: There are few great novels about people who are basically good and who are, in the end, rewarded for it. I can think of only three others I have read in this genre that had any literary merit: Eliot's ADAM BEDE; Elizabeth Gaskell's CRANFORD; and Oliver Goldsmith's THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. I can see why SILAS MARNER is usually regarded as a novel to be read by the young, if only because it reinforces values that most of us see as desirable.

Granted that Marner starts out as a miser, if only because he is so isolated from the rural community in which he lives. When Marner's small fortune is stolen, a strange thing happens: His neighbors gather closer to him and help him, drawing him out of himself and illuminating the goodness that was always inside of him. Marner's neighbor, Dolly Winthrop -- a poor, inarticulate wheelwight's wife who does everything she can to make Silas a part of the village of Raveloe -- particularly shines through in an excellent supporting role, one of many in the book.

When a toddler whose mother dies crawls into Marner's house, the process begins to accelerate as he adopts her. The weaver now has someone to live for; and the love between him and the little Eppie begins to flower.

Good seems such undynamic a quality in literature. George Eliot is one of the few writers who can make the tribulations of a good person worthwhile reading. In weaver and his neighbors, Eliot has created an entire community that strives for the greatest good (with the sole exception of Dunsey Cass, who steals Marner's fortune). The best books always make you wonder what happens next; and SILAS MARNER kept me turning the pages, marvelling at my own reactions to what I would once have thought was too simple and flimsy to engage my attention.

George Eliot is a writer of many surprises and many surprising strengths. I had approached this book only because I was filling in a gap in my reading. Having read it, I urge anyone to pick up this book if you are young and hope for the best in life -- or come to it, like myself, an adult who has been "nicked by the scythe," who has forgotten some simple truths about which he needed reminding.

Rating: 5
Summary: One of my favorite all-time novels
Comment: I first read Silas Marner when I was 18 years old, and loved every word. I started reading it again immediately after finishing it! As said in other reviews, perhaps 9th grade is indeed too early because at that age, this older language style is difficult to "get into" quickly enough to hold their interest. I found myself wrapped in this little town with its odd characters and gossip, and wished I'd lived there. The imagery is so strong and sweet I still refer to the scenery evoked by this novel when I read completely unrelated historical articles! The story itself cannot be called remarkable because it is one of the basic stories about humanity and what matters in life. Yet George Eliot surpasses all others in the telling of it. There is a reason this book is on all the reading lists -- it is a great achievement.

Rating: 5
Summary: Classic Literature
Comment: Reviews of this novel, seem to fall into three categories: those written by people who like to read great literature; those written by people who would prefer to read brain candy; and those written students forced to read the novel as a class assignment and,in some cases, would prefer not to read anything (if the third category is discarded, the average rating is much higher).

One of the most remarkable things about this novel is the fact it was written by a woman, using a male pen name, in 19th century England when women were generally oppressed, i.e., they were not encouraged to have careers or to do anything outside the home. The story is well known. A man who blacks out during seizures, not remembering what happened, is falsely accused of theft of money from his church. He is shunned by his former friends and becomes a recluse. When he is later robbed of his savings, and an abandoned child appears on his doorstep in place of the gold, his life is changed as he takes responsibility for the child.

This is classic literature from that time period, and is most certainly easier to read than many other novels from the same period (students should consider themselves fortunate that they were not assigned to read one of Thomas Hardy's novels). I first became acquainted with the novel when it was assigned reading in a high school English class. That was over 50 years ago, and the story is one that has stuck in my mind.