Wordy Wednesday – “Silas Marner” by George Eliot

I wasn’t impressed with this novel.

I liked the characters, many of whom were humorously written, but the overall story was only okay. It’s about love and redemption and doing the right thing – and while I’m interested in those things, none of them were executed in a unique or new fashion here.

(Photo source)

Maybe for its time it was new, but I suspect it wasn’t and refuse to do any responsible research into the matter.

If you want a little picture of England in the mid-18th century, maybe this novel would have a few crumbs for you. I hear it is fairly accurate – it’s big on “realism” is what I keep seeing.

If you want a novel that entertains, it does have a handful of good moments, but if you want a novel that makes you think or leaves a strong impression, look elsewhere (maybe Moby Dick, if you have the patience? Or Kokoro, recently blogged about here by a handsome man).

One of my main problems with Silas Marner was that the character I thought would be the main villain just disappears. We get an explanation right at the end of the novel but it’s not terribly satisfying.

Skip this one.

But wait! Then I learned more awful things about this mediocre book!

The film Black Snake Moan is supposedly based on Silas Marner, but the plot synopsis on Wikipedia looks like the film is a confused and incoherent waste of everyone’s time! So it looks like you should stay away from everything connected to Silas Marner.