“Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of blindly taking to the confectionary line has not, perhaps, been sufficiently considered.”

We, I somehow found both of these tales a bit tedious to read for some reason, yet they've stuck with me these last coupe of days while I've been contemplating what to say of them here. Apparently I'd read "The Lifted Vei" before and even reviewed it here and then forgotten all abut it. My comment then was that I found it insufficiently Gothic. This time through I had the opposite feeling, that it was rather too Gothic, even kind of a parody of E. A. Poe. Still, in the end, It is an interesting tale, focusing on the Romantic conception, I think, of the weak, dreamers among us, the syphilitic artists fading away with consumption and a dreamy dis-attachment with reality. Unhealthy yet revolutionary. 0f curse Eliot brings morality into it as we, in the form of human fellowship, and that makes the tale a tad more interesting as most romantic loner authors avoid the topic or are entirety hostile to society--and why not? The macho man standard does us no favors individually or as a culture unless you're a war profiteer. The ending, too, is a bit of a fizzle, really--we've had too much murder and mayhem in literature to be all that scandalized by a mere thought of murder.

This small collection's second tale irked a bit as it's a satire and grated after the more serious "Lifted Veil." While our editor finds it just the right anti-compliment, I found myself disappointed, hoping for a second, perhaps even better Romantic or Gothic tale. Even though I've written a satiric novel of my own--about the Trump presidency--I find that satire doesn't age all that well. At any rate, this is surely a tale to point to when they ask you why all these artists, intellectuals, and teachers are so down on capitalism: as the story points out, the present system incentivizes moral decay, opportunism, exploitation, and tooth decay. Time for something new, some far more humane system to build a word around.

Of the two stories in this collection, the Lifted Veil is by far the superior. There is a fantastical element to it, the eponymous veil is that of time and other people's minds. Our narrator can get the feel for a person, know how they perceive him, and because he has a weakened physical state and is a self-ascribed poet, it is often not favorable.

The story though is full of a doomed, dramatic romance, family, and an exciting account in Geneva - a place I am very familiar with and hold a lot of love for. Oh how I wish I could swim out in the lake again with those huge dark forms floating beneath me. Eating hot fried fish and potatoes on the beach side of the Bains de Paquis. Walking around the airy open spaces of the little house on the banks that was filled with microscopes, Geneva's own History of Science Museum just off the lake.
The story is very satisfying and well written and I was eager to pick up Brother Jacob.

Seriously, look at this place. It is my fantasy residence, just off of the lake.





Brother Jacob is a sad story but in a different way to the Lifted Veil. The good boy Davy can't help but be kind to his mentally impaired brother and in doing so finds his own downfall after stealing a small fortune in guineas from his mother and fleeing to the West Indies. The whole story is very on the nose about the expectations of young British men in the colonies, that people of color would fall over themselves with glee that the white man would appear on their shores.
Eliot phrases this beautifully here:

"When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in his own country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes; where a young gentleman of pasty visage, lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be likely to be received with the hospitable enthusiasm which he had a right to expect."

I think it's the 'lipless mouth' that pushes it over the edge for me.
So Davy loses the gravy but makes some sweet sugary swans, no doubt he's already onto the next town with his story of exotic esotericism, pursued by his adoring, lozenge-additcted, rake-wielding brother Jacob.

This was my first read of Eliot and I really enjoyed the writing. Middlemarch will be read eventually!
Recommended.

Perhaps an odd pairing - but they are Eliot's only stand-alone short works, so they are often paired together. Written at the same time, "Jacob" was not published until nearly 10 years later. "Veil" harkens back to the Romantic/Gothic novels of the past era. "Jacob" is her lone "comedy".
Oxford World Classics edition - nice Intro and Notes. Although Notes can be odd/inconsistent at times - do we need 3 pages on "double-consciousness" on one hand, and then an explanation of who Titian is?
Probably of most interest to Eliot completists. As early works, some connection to her later work, and "Jacob" repeats some themes from "Clerical Life".

read brother jacob 23/10/2024

fascinating about learning disability and colonialism -- jacob presumed not to be a flaw in the plan due to his learning disability, also similar to of mice and men. if people didn't see some people's voices as unvaluable, david wouldn't have been able to get away with so much of his colonial and duplicitous activities!