Brother Jacob (Eliot)

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.

The lifted veil (Eliot) 189

I've never read any books by George Eliot, so when I spotted The lifted veil in a VMC edition in Oxfam I decided to pick it up. Especially as it was a slim volume!

However, (and I'm sorry to post another slightly negative review), it was probably not the best George Eliot to start with. The introduction acknowledges that this work is atypical for Eliot - it was written in 1859, but not published until 1878, and it is certainly not as popular as her other "classic" novels.

It takes the unusual theme of ESP and clairvoyancy; Latimer, the principle character discovers one night that he has powers in this area, and has a vision of a "pale, fatal eyed woman". He later meets her and discovers that she is the fiancee of his brother. He gets visions filled with warnings but is unwilling to take action on them. The most interesting concept for me in the book was the way that Eliot explains how it is human nature to end up getting involved in situations that one knows one should be avoided; this takes on an even weightier message given the clairvoyancy involved for Latimer.

There is another George Eliot VMC, Brother Jacob.

Two Virago covers, both featuring the same image, presumably meant to imply Bertha? My copy is the later one.