"The Lifted Veil" George Eliot

"Our sweet illusions are half of them conscious illusions, like effects of colour that we know to be made up of tinsel, broken glass and rags."

- "The Lifted Veil" George Eliot

A novella George Eliot wrote in 1859.  This is the first thing I have read of hers, and I admit a novella seems much less intimidating than trying to tackle "Middlemarch."

A fascination with science was common in Victorian England, and Eliot used by extrasensory perception and a re-awaking of the dead through transfusion as plot devices in this novella.  According to the analyses I have read of this short work Eliot's use of these elements, which are more akin to the Victorian horror fiction of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker or H. G. Wells, are a departure from her style.  I was pleasantly surprised by these elements in "The Lifted Veil" and a little disappointed that I wouldn't be seeing them in her longer works.

While away at university, Latimer becomes ill.  As he is recovering he discovers that he has vivid detailed premonitions and can read the thoughts of those around him.  He finds this burdensome as he uncovers his family's and friend's true feelings, including the disdain that his father and brother have for him.  He becomes infatuated with Bertha, his brother's fiance, most probably because he cannot read her thoughts.  He has a premonition of what life would be like with Bertha in the future, but despite that he desires her.

I don't want to tell more of the story in case my infrequent but dedicated readers want to try some Eliot on for size.  Like her longer fiction, or so I have read, this novella follows Latimer's thoughts and actions as he struggles with what he has done to deserve this fate.  He is more interested in poetry than science, and his weak constitution make him lesser in his father's eyes.  Added to these disadvantages, he is oppressed by being able to hear the disappointment his father has for him.  He asks why this is his fate, and he worries that his own thoughts of his desire for Bertha and hatred for his brother and whether those will doom him.

I have become more interested in books that are more thought-provoking and introspective than filled with action, but I am still daunted by the idea of trying to read one of Eliot's longer works.  I think I'll start with "Silas Marner".