Status
Available
Publication
Hoboken, N.J. : Melville House Pub., 2007 printing.
Description
Fiction. Horror. Short Stories. Thriller. HTML: Working under the nom de plume George Eliot, gifted writer Mary Anne Evans made a name for herself as one of the foremost innovators in the realm of realistic fiction. In The Lifted Veil, however, she takes a sharp detour from the detailed depictions that characterized novels such as Middlemarch. In this short novel, Evans explores the realm of extrasensory perception, focusing on a protagonist who seems to have been given the ability to peer into the innermost thoughts of those around himâ??often with disastrous results.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Cariola
More of a short story than a novel (at only 60+ pages plus an afterwards by a modern writer), this was a fast, enjoyable read. Eliot's style and tone here reminded me of Frankenstein and a number of Poe's short stories.
LibraryThing member LyzzyBee
27 Feb 2010 - Methodist Book Sale
I spotted this Virago at the Methodist book sale (we're going to have a few from there over the next month!) and realised it was an Eliot I'd heard nothing about. A minor work, and short even for a novella, this was apparently seen as embarrassing by Eliot's
I can see why. This is a very, very odd book. It's full of the supernatural and becomes more and more uneasy-feeling until the truly horrific ending. OK, I am a bit pathetic when it comes to horror, but mucking around with corpses...! You can see flashes of the Eliot we're familiar with in the precise descriptions and family dynamics, but this tale of a psychic, over-sensitive man, who can read the thoughts of those around him and has visions of the future, left me cold (and goose-bumpy!). The afterword was well done and did explain the background, but still...
One for the collector of Viragos or a George Eliot afficionado only, I think.
I spotted this Virago at the Methodist book sale (we're going to have a few from there over the next month!) and realised it was an Eliot I'd heard nothing about. A minor work, and short even for a novella, this was apparently seen as embarrassing by Eliot's
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publisher during her lifetime and eventually published only as an extra in an omnibus with two other books.I can see why. This is a very, very odd book. It's full of the supernatural and becomes more and more uneasy-feeling until the truly horrific ending. OK, I am a bit pathetic when it comes to horror, but mucking around with corpses...! You can see flashes of the Eliot we're familiar with in the precise descriptions and family dynamics, but this tale of a psychic, over-sensitive man, who can read the thoughts of those around him and has visions of the future, left me cold (and goose-bumpy!). The afterword was well done and did explain the background, but still...
One for the collector of Viragos or a George Eliot afficionado only, I think.
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LibraryThing member rainpebble
I did not find this to be a lovely book, but I do find that my opinion of this book remains drastically different from most L.T. readers of the book.
I thought The Lifted Veil to be quite brilliant. As I read, I felt myself looking into the man's mind and found myself to be momentarily taking on his
Yes, I thought it very different and as I said rather brilliant; much as I found Dracula when I read it.
Sorry ladies and gentleen of the jury. I shall, most likely, be the only one here with this opinion. But then too, I am probably the only one here who has been on a psyche ward for depression, anxiety and panic attack as well. I cannot say if that colored my reading of this book.
I thought The Lifted Veil to be quite brilliant. As I read, I felt myself looking into the man's mind and found myself to be momentarily taking on his
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mental persona as well. I was not bored. I was not piqued. I was not grossed out. The book did not depress me nor did it make me nervous or anxious. I was nothing but a person within another person's ill mind. There was very little within the book that was literal and not simply in his mind.Yes, I thought it very different and as I said rather brilliant; much as I found Dracula when I read it.
Sorry ladies and gentleen of the jury. I shall, most likely, be the only one here with this opinion. But then too, I am probably the only one here who has been on a psyche ward for depression, anxiety and panic attack as well. I cannot say if that colored my reading of this book.
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LibraryThing member MeditationesMartini
A deep dark psycho-depressive Victorian horror novella from Eliot, with a good ambiguous touch--we never know if Latimer really has the clairvoyant sight he claims, and therefore if the veil that lifts is the one between man and true sight, or madness. It's psychologically skilled on a more mundane
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level as well, with the treatment of a loveless cold war of a relationship between a narcissist and a histrionic--the fear of others and yet the fear of isolation. It's minor Eliot, but it's Eliot, and that means quality. Show Less
LibraryThing member 391
Gorgeous short story. Really beautifully written, and an intense read.
LibraryThing member janeajones
[The Lifted Veil] is a rather anamolous novella by George Eliot as it deals with the supernatural and seems to be Eliot's foray into Gothic experimentation.
Latimer, the protagonist, is a rather neurasthenic young man who becomes obsessed with Bertha Grant, his robust brother's fiancee. After his
I found the narrator somewhat intriguing, but I don't think the other characters were at all well developed. Eliot built the suspense well, but I thought the payoff was pretty anti-climactic. Up until that point, I thought the book was very Poe-like, but Poe usually manages to "thrill" the reader in a more satisfying way. Her exploration was more philosophical than Gothic -- more interested in the horrors of a life lived outside of meaningful social contacts than creating terror or horror in her readers.
Latimer, the protagonist, is a rather neurasthenic young man who becomes obsessed with Bertha Grant, his robust brother's fiancee. After his
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brother dies in an accident, he marries Bertha although he has a premonitory vision of their miserable life together.I found the narrator somewhat intriguing, but I don't think the other characters were at all well developed. Eliot built the suspense well, but I thought the payoff was pretty anti-climactic. Up until that point, I thought the book was very Poe-like, but Poe usually manages to "thrill" the reader in a more satisfying way. Her exploration was more philosophical than Gothic -- more interested in the horrors of a life lived outside of meaningful social contacts than creating terror or horror in her readers.
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LibraryThing member MissBrangwen
*This is a review of the Penguin Little Black Classics edition of "The Lifted Veil"*
This short volume includes two texts: The essay "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists", which was published in the Westminster Review, and the novella "The Lifted Veil". I read the essay first although in the book it
In her essay, George Eliot cleverly analyzes the different kinds of 'silly novels' written by contemporary female writers. She criticizes them for various reasons, her main points being the following:
- These writers only write about the upper classes and either completely ignore ordinary people, or if they do include them, they depict them badly or falsely because they do not know anything about their lives.
- They do a disservice to 'serious writers' (Eliot names Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell as examples) because on the one hand they take up much of the spotlight that the others also need, and on the other hand, because they provide more fodder to those men who are of the opinion that women are not able to write.
There are many more aspects in the essay, but these were the ones that stood out most to me. I am not going to write more because then I will just repeat the whole essay.
The novella "The Lifted Veil" is fundamentally gothic. I have not a lot of experience with gothic texts - I have read a few, but without realizing what they really were, and have not read any for a long time - but I did like it.
The narrator, Latimer, a sickly young man and younger son of a wealthy banker and land owner, falls in love with a beautiful woman when he discovers that he has the gift of foresight. It turns out, though, that it is not a gift at all, but it troubles him with no end.
Again, I will not write more because otherwise all the surprises would be gone. It is a very short novella, but it has a few turning points and different parts to it. The underlying suspense and unease is strong and makes for a chilling and depressing read. I was intrigued but of course it is unusual for George Eliot.
This short volume includes two texts: The essay "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists", which was published in the Westminster Review, and the novella "The Lifted Veil". I read the essay first although in the book it
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comes second.In her essay, George Eliot cleverly analyzes the different kinds of 'silly novels' written by contemporary female writers. She criticizes them for various reasons, her main points being the following:
- These writers only write about the upper classes and either completely ignore ordinary people, or if they do include them, they depict them badly or falsely because they do not know anything about their lives.
- They do a disservice to 'serious writers' (Eliot names Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell as examples) because on the one hand they take up much of the spotlight that the others also need, and on the other hand, because they provide more fodder to those men who are of the opinion that women are not able to write.
There are many more aspects in the essay, but these were the ones that stood out most to me. I am not going to write more because then I will just repeat the whole essay.
The novella "The Lifted Veil" is fundamentally gothic. I have not a lot of experience with gothic texts - I have read a few, but without realizing what they really were, and have not read any for a long time - but I did like it.
The narrator, Latimer, a sickly young man and younger son of a wealthy banker and land owner, falls in love with a beautiful woman when he discovers that he has the gift of foresight. It turns out, though, that it is not a gift at all, but it troubles him with no end.
Again, I will not write more because otherwise all the surprises would be gone. It is a very short novella, but it has a few turning points and different parts to it. The underlying suspense and unease is strong and makes for a chilling and depressing read. I was intrigued but of course it is unusual for George Eliot.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
A mini-book containing a short story about a man whose life is blighted by his ability to foresee the future and read other people's thoughts.
LibraryThing member greeniezona
This is the only book I read on the train that I actually brought with me to read on the train. One of Melville House Books' Art of the Novella series, I was drawn to it as soon as I saw the author. I read Middlemarch a year or so back and absolutely loved it, but I hadn't yet read anything else by
A pleasing, old-fashioned yet somehow modern page-turner, this story seems both to praise and condemn the veils of privacy that shield each person's heart and mind from any other. How much misery could be avoided if each couple perhaps knew each other a little better before committing to spend their entire lives together? And yet how much misery to know everything -- every thought and judgement and disappointment in another's mind?
Highly recommended. In fact, I have a friend who I may have to buy a copy for.
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Eliot. As I am given to understand, this work both is and is not representative of her novel writing. It of course features her empathetic characterizations and high-minded idealism, but in this novella these traits are interwoven with supernatural suspense.A pleasing, old-fashioned yet somehow modern page-turner, this story seems both to praise and condemn the veils of privacy that shield each person's heart and mind from any other. How much misery could be avoided if each couple perhaps knew each other a little better before committing to spend their entire lives together? And yet how much misery to know everything -- every thought and judgement and disappointment in another's mind?
Highly recommended. In fact, I have a friend who I may have to buy a copy for.
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LibraryThing member nadineeg
Apparently this novel was not only unusual for George Elliot, but for the time. The author presents Latimer - a young man from a wealthy self-made family who is not raised to carry on the family business - that is left to his stronger and lustier older brother. Whilst in Switzerland studying in a
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healthy atmosphere where he is thriving, he has a clairvoyant moment that leads to a dead faint. As the blurb from the book states: Latimer, a sensitive and intellectual man, finds he has clairvoyant powers. Then he has a vision of a woman, 'pale, fatal-eyed', whom he later meets: she in Bertha Grant, his brother's fiancee. Entranced, bewildered, Latimer falls under her spell, unwilling to take heed of the warning visions which beset him. In this edition, there is an excellent essay on George Elliot and this novella's publication history. At the time of writing, the concept of being able to change your fate was little considered - fate was fate and the fact that you could see into your future or that of others was unfortunate but unchangeable. It is only is later years that the concept of changing your fate has been presented although not all novels and other media such as plays and movies allow us to get off so easily, as there is a common theme of running away from the known fate, only to reach it in another quite different manner. The Twilight Zone made much of this theme in its shows - so too Alfred Hitchcock's TV Theater plays. Show Less
LibraryThing member belgrade18
A novella about a troubled young man, the son and heir to a wealthy banker (or some such). A great exercise if you want to think about "the reliability of the narrator," because he's clearly mad as a hatter but doesn't know it; but it's mercifully short. George Eliot's writing is superb as usual,
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though the story is very odd and gets especially weird towards the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheCrow2
Moderately interesting supernatural Victorian short story with clairvoyance and raising dead.
LibraryThing member Petroglyph
This novella is two things in hindsight: it is gothic-ish science fiction avant la lettre, and it is Twilight-from-Edward’s-perspective
Latimer is a sensitive young lad growing up in the shadow of his older brother, who is more successful, handsomer, with a better sense for business and who is
There’s a nice, moody sense of gloom hanging over this tale, and the portions that could be called gothicky and (in hindsight) “science fiction” are nicely balanced by some well-written 19th century musings on introspective angst. I liked this one, and am disappointed to find out this is the only speculative fiction thing Eliot ever wrote.
Latimer is a sensitive young lad growing up in the shadow of his older brother, who is more successful, handsomer, with a better sense for business and who is
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groomed by their father to take over the family estate. Latimer, indifferent to society’s expectations of a gentleman, is sent to a Swiss boarding school and expects to spend the rest of his life on the sufferance of his elders and betters. Until, after a sudden illness, he finds he has become sensitive to the future: he has visions of cities he has not yet visited, and discovers he can see into people’s minds, too. When he falls in love, it is with a girl who is unique in that her mind is closed to him; he cannot read her thoughts. As it turns out, she’s his brother’s fiancée, too. There’s a nice, moody sense of gloom hanging over this tale, and the portions that could be called gothicky and (in hindsight) “science fiction” are nicely balanced by some well-written 19th century musings on introspective angst. I liked this one, and am disappointed to find out this is the only speculative fiction thing Eliot ever wrote.
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LibraryThing member classyhomemaker
2023: I read this over a couple hours last night as I'm trying to make my reading goal for the year. I think I appreciated it a little more this time and am a little embarrassed at my sanctimonious tone in 2012. I might reread tonight... or at least look over some parts again. I had a bit of a
2012: The first few pages of this book really grabbed me. The mystery behind Latimer's clairvoyant vision, the anticipation of how he got to the place he was... I was sure this would be a well-written and concise tale since it is only about 65 pages long.
I was right---it was well-written. However, I didn't enjoy it. I think it's just not something I would have been interesting in reading had I known the subject matter: A rude, feministic woman whose ultimate purpose didn't surprise me (I'd figured that out shortly into the book). A man obsessed with twisted perceptions of his brother's fiance. I don't know--it's just not my thing.
What I DID come away with was some food for thought regarding the negative side of "clairvoyancy". In the Christian faith, we call that the gift of prophecy or the gift of discernment. Other people call this, ESP. As one who has a strong gift of discernment, I have actually found myself, just this week, in a situation where I know more than I wish I did. I've known for years about a situation that has just recently happened. It can be hard to see that coming; but, if you're one who prays, it can be a blessing as you can cover the situation in prayer and hope for a better outcome.
Anyway, that was sort of a tangent... :)
While I'm glad I read this, since I've been trying to read more "Classics", it's not one that I would likely read again.
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difficult time, in parts. Still growing that reading comprehension!2012: The first few pages of this book really grabbed me. The mystery behind Latimer's clairvoyant vision, the anticipation of how he got to the place he was... I was sure this would be a well-written and concise tale since it is only about 65 pages long.
I was right---it was well-written. However, I didn't enjoy it. I think it's just not something I would have been interesting in reading had I known the subject matter: A rude, feministic woman whose ultimate purpose didn't surprise me (I'd figured that out shortly into the book). A man obsessed with twisted perceptions of his brother's fiance. I don't know--it's just not my thing.
What I DID come away with was some food for thought regarding the negative side of "clairvoyancy". In the Christian faith, we call that the gift of prophecy or the gift of discernment. Other people call this, ESP. As one who has a strong gift of discernment, I have actually found myself, just this week, in a situation where I know more than I wish I did. I've known for years about a situation that has just recently happened. It can be hard to see that coming; but, if you're one who prays, it can be a blessing as you can cover the situation in prayer and hope for a better outcome.
Anyway, that was sort of a tangent... :)
While I'm glad I read this, since I've been trying to read more "Classics", it's not one that I would likely read again.
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Original publication date
1859
Physical description
75 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
9780976658306
Local notes
Fiction