Scan barcode
A review by thestoryofaz
The Lifted Veil / Brother Jacob by George Eliot
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
I picked this up on occasion of George Eliot's birthday.
The Lifted Veil
★★★★★
'She was my oasis of mystery in the dreary desert of knowledge.'
How much knowledge is too much knowledge? The psychological thriller novella by George Eliot tells the story of a young man cursed with the power to see the future with frightening accuracy and detail (the original Raven?). It is not uncommon for Eliot to explore the repressed genius in her works and Latimer, the hero and narrator of this Frankensteinesque short piece, could be said to be one too. Deprived of the knowledge he craves, he is cursed with too much knowledge of an entirely different mold and he sinks into a life of maddening unfulfillment and hopelessness. Fraught with tension and flowing with an unparalleled mastery of language, Eliot leads us straight on into the psyche of this tortured soul and proves once more why she is one of the greatest artists of the literary canon.
Brother Jacob
★★★★
'And we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the unexpected forms in which the great Nemesis hides herself.'
'Brother Jacob' is Eliot's foray into a straightforward social satire in the vein of William Makepeace Thackeray. It tells the story of a dishonest yeoman who travels to the West Indies to 'try his fortunes there' and subsequently returns and establishes himself as a confectioner in a quaint parish-town under a new name. His guiles are eventually exposed by the titular brother. While the story lacks Eliot's usual charm and dry humor, it is nonetheless a pleasurable read and a testament to the writer's versatility.
The Lifted Veil
★★★★★
'She was my oasis of mystery in the dreary desert of knowledge.'
How much knowledge is too much knowledge? The psychological thriller novella by George Eliot tells the story of a young man cursed with the power to see the future with frightening accuracy and detail (the original Raven?). It is not uncommon for Eliot to explore the repressed genius in her works and Latimer, the hero and narrator of this Frankensteinesque short piece, could be said to be one too. Deprived of the knowledge he craves, he is cursed with too much knowledge of an entirely different mold and he sinks into a life of maddening unfulfillment and hopelessness. Fraught with tension and flowing with an unparalleled mastery of language, Eliot leads us straight on into the psyche of this tortured soul and proves once more why she is one of the greatest artists of the literary canon.
Brother Jacob
★★★★
'And we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the unexpected forms in which the great Nemesis hides herself.'
'Brother Jacob' is Eliot's foray into a straightforward social satire in the vein of William Makepeace Thackeray. It tells the story of a dishonest yeoman who travels to the West Indies to 'try his fortunes there' and subsequently returns and establishes himself as a confectioner in a quaint parish-town under a new name. His guiles are eventually exposed by the titular brother. While the story lacks Eliot's usual charm and dry humor, it is nonetheless a pleasurable read and a testament to the writer's versatility.