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From the book:In the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses - and even great ladies, clothed in silk and thread-lace, had their toy spinning-wheels of polished oak - there might be seen in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain pallid undersized men, who, by the side of the brawny country-folk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race. The shepherd's dog barked fiercely when one of these alien-looking men appeared on the upland, dark against the early winter sunset; for what dog likes a figure bent under a heavy bag? - and these pale men rarely stirred abroad without that mysterious burden. The shepherd himself, though he had good reason to believe that the bag held nothing but flaxen thread, or else the long rolls of strong linen spun from that thread, was not quite sure that this trade of weaving, indispensable though it was, could be carried on entirely without the help of the Evil One. In that far-off time superstition clung easily round every person or thing that was at all unwonted, or even intermittent and occasional merely, like the visits of the pedlar or the knife-grinder. No one knew where wandering men had their homes or their origin; and how was a man to be explained unless you at least knew somebody who knew his father and mother? To the peasants of old times, the world outside their own direct experience was a region of vagueness and mystery: to their untravelled thought a state of wandering was a conception as dim as the winter life of the swallows that came back with the spring; and even a settler, if he came from distant parts, hardly ever ceased to be viewed with a remnant of distrust, which would have prevented any surprise if a long course of inoffensive conduct on his part had ended in the commission of a crime; especially if he had any reputation for knowledge, or showed any skill in handicraft. All cleverness, whether in the rapid use of that difficult instrument the tongue, or in some other art unfamiliar to villagers, was in itself suspicious: honest folk, born and bred in a visible manner, were mostly not overwise or clever - at least, not beyond such a matter as knowing the signs of the weather; and the process by which rapidity and dexterity of any kind were acquired was so wholly hidden, that they partook of the nature of conjuring. In this way it came to pass that those scattered linen-weavers - emigrants from the town into the country - were to the last regarded as aliens by their rustic neighbours, and usually contracted the eccentric habits which belong to a state of loneliness.
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Subjects
Weavers, Social life and customs, Conduct of life, Foundlings, Open Library Staff Picks, Fiction, Fathers and daughters, Country life, Interpersonal relations, Pastoral fiction, Adopted children, Happiness, English fiction, Classic fiction, Literature: Texts, Literature: Classics, Literature - Classics / Criticism, Classics, Fiction / Classics, England, fiction, Fathers and daughters, fiction, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, family life, Textbooks for foreign speakers, English language, Readers, Fiction, general, Large type books, Juvenile fiction, Children's stories, English, Manners and customs, Readers for new literates, High interest-low vocabulary books, Readers (Secondary), ESL collection, Classic Literature, Dictionaries, French, German, Spanish, The life of a miserly old man is changed forever when he finds and adopts a beautiful little girl, Misers, Korean, Silas Marner (Eliot, George), English literature, Criticism and interpretation, General, Children's fiction, CHR 1978, PRO Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy), Father and daughter, Literary, Psychological, Fiction, family life, general, History, Eliot, george, 1819-1880, Orphans, Poor, Pauvres, Romans, nouvelles, Pères et filles, Enfants adoptés, Enfants trouvés, Tisserands, Histoire, Male weaversPeople
George Eliot (1819-1880)Places
England, Great BritainTimes
19th centuryShowing 12 featured editions. View all 448 editions?
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Silas Marner
March 31, 2006, Townsend Press
Paperback
in English
- Student edition
1591940486 9781591940487
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Silas Marner: The lifted veil ; Brother Jacob
1896, Croscup and Company
in English
- Holly Lodge ed.
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Book Details
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Work Description
Eliot's touching novel of a miser and a little child combines the charm of a fairy tale with the humor and pathos of realistic fiction. The gentle linen weaver, Silas Marner, exiles himself to the town of Raveloe after being falsely accused of a heinous theft. There he begins to find redemption and spiritual rebirth through his unselfish love for an abandoned child he discovers in his isolated cottage.
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- Created June 23, 2010
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August 10, 2021 | Edited by AgentSapphire | merge authors |
April 14, 2021 | Edited by AgentSapphire | Merge works |
March 4, 2021 | Edited by LebrunCastillo | Edition/work |
April 25, 2011 | Edited by OCLC Bot | Added OCLC numbers. |
June 23, 2010 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record. |