Books

1861. [the "A" binding, fine] Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1861. 16 pp undated ads + 4 pp (Carlyle) ads bearing January 1861 reviews. Original blind-stamped cinnamon-brown cloth. First Edition of George Eliot's only single-volume novel ("a short and simple one, but flawlessly fashioned"). SILAS MARNER is a novel of remarkable quality. Idyllic, certainly, but nowhere does it strain belief or offer coincidence as a resolution... There is not a superfluous line in the narrative and the book has charm, a quality rarely found in the work of the great Victorian novelists [CGEL]. This was George Eliot's third novel, following ADAM BEDE and THE MILL ON THE FLOSS (published in the prior two years, also by Blackwood); after SILAS MARNER she would temporarily abandon her successful environment of rural England, and fail miserably with ROMOLA, sited in 1490s Italy. This copy is in Carter's "binding A," with the more elaborate giltwork on the spine (a variation also…

'Silas Marner', published in 1861, tells the story of a reclusive weaver, who finds redemption and purpose after adopting an orphaned girl.