A wonderful tale, but just a tale

[Gladys]

Having just finished Silas Marner, I can say I was thoroughly entertained by this fine moral story. But, after Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, I was expecting high drama and moral complexities akin to that in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. But Silas Marner is something less. :frown5:

Still, isn't Priscilla stupendous?

[kev67]

It read like a straight morality tale. One of the characters was redeemed and all the primary characters got their just deserts. Although maybe not all the secondary characters: it was sad for Nancy too that they could not have children. I was concerned Dunsey might get away with his crimes. I hoped for a public execution at least. As I had only read Middlemarch before, I was not sure whether Elliot was the sort of author to allow a character to escape his just punishment or reward. George Gissing may have allowed him to escape.

[Jackson Richardson]

I haven't read Silas Marner for years, but when I did last I was almost continuously weeping as I identified with the central character.

I'm bemused by the comparison of Middlemarch and Wuthering Heights.

[Jackson Richardson]

PS, George Eliot doesn't really do nasty characters - good liberal that she is, everyone has a good side (apart from Grandcourt and possibly Rosamund Vincy).

[kev67]

PS, George Eliot doesn't really do nasty characters - good liberal that she is, everyone has a good side (apart from Grandcourt and possibly Rosamund Vincy).


Dunstan Cass was thoroughly bad. A scheming, dishonest, abusive, totally selfish character. No one missed him when he left.
I had more sympathy for Rosamund Vincy than for Dunsey Cass. Was Grandcourt in Middlemarch?

[prendrelemick]

Having just finished Silas Marner, I can say I was thoroughly entertained by this fine moral story. But, after Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, I was expecting high drama and moral complexities akin to that in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. But Silas Marner is something less. :frown5:

Still, isn't Priscilla stupendous?

It is a charming tale. Feel that warm glow and happy satisfaction at the end. I'm reluctant to say less is more, but sometimes a simple tale, simply told, makes a more effective vehicle for a novelist's themes and aims than alot of clever literary convolutions. It's more enjoyable than Wuthering Heights too.

[Jackson Richardson]

Grandcourt is the baddie in Daniel Deronda.