Silas Marner

Miss Shields, Ralphie's teacher on A Christmas Story was partly responsible for my reading the book I have just completed.  I don't know why, but seeds of inspiration often come to me unwittingly and from sources I wouldn't expect.

A Christmas Story is one of those movies R. and I watch almost every Christmas.  As one classroom scene fades, Miss Shields begins to talk with the class about their latest literary quest - Silas Marner!

Having seldom graced the presence of any literary circles and by a combination of choice and fate, I seldom found myself in the "challenging" classes in high school - I am just now coming to appreciate and even know the least about some classics.  So I don't remember ever hearing of this tome except from the movie, but the title intrigued me... I like colorful names.

When I got my Kindle2 earlier this year and was perusing the "FREE" books I could download, I ran across the book and naturally added it to my archives.

Even more recently someone mentioned the book - probably on Moody Radio and quite possibly it was Chuck Colson - anyway, they referenced the Biblical Worldview perspective of the book.  So I took it up on my next opportunity.

The story is quaint, which immediately drew me in.  I found companionship with several of the characters since I share similar emotions: 

• Silas, who often found it easier to be a loner than to try and reach out to the townspeople of Raveloe.
• Godfrey Cass, who had a good heart but was constantly badgered by an inability to make a decision.
• Nancy Lammeter, who spent her life imposing rules and restraints upon herself in order to do what she thought pleased others.

Silas was the underdog, a man driven from his home and all that he knew and held dear - rejected by the love of his life and betrayed by his best friend.  He arrived in Raveloe and could not or would not seem to fit in.  Silas was angry with God and no other relationships would take root.

The story traces his life through highs and lows of becoming a miser and then having his riches - the only thing he let himself love - taken from him.

When he finds Eppie - a child abandoned after the death of her mother - his whole world is altered. And through raising this golden-haired little treasure - he gets his treasure back.  He also becomes well loved by the community.

I was a little disturbed about halfway through the book, when I learned that George Elliott - the author - was actually a woman of ill-repute, named Mary Ann Evans.  This 19th century author chose a masculine pen name in hopes of being taken seriously.
She lived with a philosopher named George Henry Lewes for over twenty years - without the benefit of marriage.  Apparently he and his legal wife had an "open marriage".

She questioned and apparently denied her Christian faith and after her death was refused burial in Westminster Abbey. 

Despite her agnostic views, her books apparently reflected the same Christian worldview seen in Silas Marner.  At one point, according to Wikipedia, before she owned up to her pen named, it was assumed that her books were written by a "country parson".

In the book, Silas just couldn't make out how God could possibly have been working good in his life through all the betrayal and mishaps he faced. Yet somehow, it came out right.  Each dark event seemed to eventually lead him toward something brighter. Though unsaid, the reader can put down the book reaffirmed in the knowledge that God is at work in the world.