Silas Marner

Silas Marner, by George Eliot, 1861 (183 pages)

I picked up this book at the library, thinking my friend Lis had said it was one of her favorites (in one of those silly Facebook "which of these books have you read" things). But I just double-checked it...and no, she likes Middlemarch. Oops...I read the wrong George Eliot novel. Oh well!

Silas Marner is a linen weaver who is wrongly accused of a crime. He exiles himself to a different village and basically becomes a recluse, only interacting with others in the town when they need him to do some weaving. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but Silas does eventually begin to interact with his neighbors after he himself becomes the victim of a crime. And as it says on the back cover of my copy of the book, "Ultimately, Marner finds redemption and spiritual rebirth through his unselfish love for an abandoned child who mysteriously appears one day in his isolated cottage."

One of the major themes of this book is that everything happens for a reason, and this is something that I wholeheartedly believe. Even things that seem negative at the time often have a way of turning into something good.

I'm going to have to say that this is another one of the books that I think I would've liked better if I had just read it faster. I do enjoy George Eliot's style of writing, but I felt that this book took a LONG time to get to one of the main plot threads of the novel (and to introduce one of the main characters). But it is definitely worth reading! I've also learned that in 1994, Steve Martin wrote and starred in a movie based on this novel, called A Simple Twist of Fate. I might have to see if I can find that. :)

*******************************************

Total number of books read in 2009: 38

Total number of pages read in 2009: 13168