Krishna
This is the second book by this author we are reviewing. The first review is for the book MiddleMarch.
Silas Marner was a taciturn man who settles down in Revelec, a village in Southern England. When a lady there has a cough, Silas remembers his mother’s remedy and gives a herbal concoction that cures her. He is then treated as a doctor, and when he turns out most of the folks crowing around his house for a spell for the ailments of their relatives, he earns their displeasure. Being a ‘Northener’, a pale and taciturn man, the townsfolk treat him always as a stranger but he is good with his loom and therefore are civil to him.
His habit of seemingly going into a trance sometimes does hot help. When it happens at church, people ascribe divine powers to him.
His only friend seems to be a man called William Dane. He has several talks with Silas. He also was inclined to wed Sarah who seemed willing to accept him. William argued that it was the Satan’s influence that caused the trance of Silas, even while he was keeping his friendship with him. When the senior deacon of the church was taken ill, several villages including Silas looked after him. One night, after seemingly on way to recovery, the deacon, during the watch of Silas, dies. William was the next one, but he did not turn up, and Silas could have slept for a bit in the middle. After inquiry, Silas is summoned and the minister shows Silas a knife that was his and asks where he had left it. Silas was usually keeping it in his pocket. The knife was found on a cupboard near the deacon’s body in a cupboard. A bag of cash was missing from the same shelf and Silas vehemently denies the accusation.
He is excommunicated from social events and allowed to live on in the village. William Dane ends up marrying Sarah.
Silas leaves town after his name has been ruined and settles down in another town. Tha main story starts here!
He focuses all his efforts on his work and buries a large pile of money in his hut.
Square Cass was a rich man who lived in a large red house and was rich. He had two sons, Geoffrey and Dunstan aka Dunsey. Dunsey was a rogue but he had Geoffrey in his control because of a secret. Geoffrey, though he was courting the comely Nancy Lammeter, he was already married to Molly. Meanwhile Geoffrey had lent some money to Dunsey to cover his gambling debt with a loan and now it was coming due. He is now forced to sell his prized possession, a horse called Wildfire. He foolishly trusts it to Dunsey when Dunsey first thretens to go to their father and reveal about Molly.
Now, the horse falls due to careless handling by Dunsey and Dunsey thinks of a plan to borrow money from Silas. When he walks to the hut of Silas, he finds the door open and it is a stormy night with fog too. He goes in and easily finds the two bags buried under the bricks and takes them away.
Silas arrives a few minutes later and discovers the theft and goes to a gathering presided by Father Cass to complain (and Geoffrey is also there).
They suspect an itinerant begger but never caught him.
Meanwhile, the wife of George Cass arrives with the kid determined to expose him. She has turned a drug addict. When she reaches part way, she is overcome by stupor and lies down with the child. The child crawls over to a light it can see and enters the hut. Providentially, this is the house of Silas Marner. He was standing close to the open door in one of his frozen moments and did not realize that the child passed right by him and curled up near the fire.
When he came to, he realizes that the golden haired girl is the one who was given him by divine wish as a compensation for his loss and brings her up as his own. First he follows the track of the child and finds the woman where she had fallen but she is dead by now.
He listens to the advise of his good natured neighbour Dolly and has her baptised and names the kid after his relation. She is called Eppie for short by everyone.
George realizes that the girl who died is the wife he did not want to acknowledge and keeps quiet about the child who he knows is his own. The one impediment in his life that stopped him from marrying the pretty Nancy.
Sixteen years roll by and George is now married to Nancy and also the owner of the farm as his father is dead by now. Dunsey never returned.
But providence plays a trick on them as they have no children. Several times in the interim George suggests that they adopt and he names Eppie but Nancy is always opposed to adoption. Meanwhile George helps the household of Silas to an extent but not so much that it would look more than a benevolent lord protecting the people.
One day when the river ebbs to a much larger extent, all the secrets come tumbling out. I will not give away how it ends, except to say that this is a very interesting and natural turn of events.
The story is well told. After all, George Eliot writes good books. The story is a very old fashioned one, it is written in 1861. The outlook was different then. However, the story ends well. After Silas Marner’s loss is known and after his affection for Eppie is known, the town’s attitude turns very friendly and he is accepted as ‘one of them’ by everyone. Later, he gets his gold back. (No spoilers here!) and then goes back to his original city to see if he can clear his name there too.
Again, the story is realistic in that sense and the ending of the book is very fascinating.
A good book, and a classic. If you like those kind of books, you will surely love this book!
7/10
— Krishna