Silas Marner is the weaver in the English countryside village of Raveloe in the early nineteenth century. Like many weavers of his time, he is an outsider–the object of suspicion because of his special skills and the fact that he has come to Raveloe from elsewhere. The villagers see Silas as especially odd because of the curious cataleptic fits he occasionally suffers. Silas has ended up in Raveloe because the members of his religious sect in Lantern Yard, an insular neighborhood in a larger town, falsely accused him of theft and excommunicated him.

A new, beautifully laid-out edition of George Eliot’s 1861 classic. Silas Marner is a weaver who lives in a small English village. After being betrayed by a close friend, Silas moves to the village of Raveloe and becomes a recluse. He spends his days weaving and working to save money, until he finds a little girl in his house one night. As he comes to love her as his own daughter, he discovers the joys of family and friendship, despite the trials and tribulations that ensue. George Eliot (1819-1880) was the pseudonym of English author Mary Ann Evans. She is best known for her novels, which often depict rural life in Victorian England. Eliot grew up in a strict evangelical family, eventually studying at the Coventry School of Design and later at a boarding school in Nuneaton. From 1841 to 1845, Eliot edited a magazine called The Westminster Review. In 1854, Eliot adopted the male pseudonym George Eliot and published her first novel, Scenes of Clerical Life. Her second novel, Adam Bede, was published in 1859 to great success. This was followed by The Mill on the Floss in 1860 and Silas Marner in 1861. Eliot’s later works included Middlemarch (1871-72), Felix Holt the Radical (1866), and Daniel Deronda (1876). She also wrote short stories and poetry. Eliot was one of the most important writers of the 19th century and her works are still widely read today.