Silas Marner

1861, 1960 Signet Classic edition
George Eliot
Silas Marner
Original price unknown, bought used for $1.50
Tattered paperback
B-

I attempted to read The Lord of the Rings several times, and usually I'd quit at the moment when the Orcs first show up in Fellowship of the Ring.  The problem was I wanted to stay in the Shire, with the Hobbits shooting the breeze at the pub.  Then I found Silas Marner, and there were all the villagers shooting the breeze at the pub.  That doesn't mean that this slim novel is exactly what I wanted, but I tend to prefer quieter, realistic fiction to grand adventures.  I'm much more a fan of Eliot's Middlemarch (coming up), in part because this novel is too short.  I understand why the narrative jumps ahead fifteen years, but it makes the novel feel lopsided.  The author probably would've drawn it out more later in her career.

Speaking of careers, Richard Armour in his otherwise spot on humorous summary of the novel missed one of the funniest lines, where the dog is described as "having no other career before her," when she follows her master out of the room.  That line used to send me into hysterics.  This time I had to read one line in Chapter Two twice, because it's about "Ann Coulter."

This copy has perhaps the oddest note in any of my books.  Someone wrote, "Someday we'll find it-- The rainbow connection/ The lovers, the dreamers and me."  It's definitely not my handwriting, but it is uncanny that someone quoted from my favorite Muppets song.  How does it apply to Silas Marner?  I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with the motif of gold in the novel, although Silas hoards his gold and doesn't find it at the end of a rainbow.