Like yesterday's read, I have to confess again to picking up Brother Jacob from the TBR pile for its size - a mere 50pp + afterword, made it one of the slimmest VMCs that I've seen (with the possible exception of The yellow wallpaper). Having not particularly enjoyed Eliot's, The lifted veil, I have to say that I didn't anticipate this one very much, especially when the introduction told me that this novella was even more overlooked than that one.
It is the tale of David, who decides that he wants to become a confectioner, but upon taking up this trade he finds it much harder work than he had imagined, so he decides that he will emigrate to the West Indies. He doesn't have enough money, so tricks his brother, the rather simple Jacob, so that he can steal his mother's savings, and off he goes. The story then switches to another confectioners' shop, run by an Edward Freely. But who is he? The arrival of Jacob on the scene reveals everything...
I guess I might have better luck with Eliot's other more well-known novels, but of course they aren't VMCs!
It's just been published once by Virago, with an original green cover.
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