Bill Crider reviewed A Simple Twist of Fate here. A Simple Twist of Fate is a movie starring Steve Martin that’s a modern update of the plot of George Eliot’s Silas Marner. Bill Crider said he read Silas Marner in High School and loved it. I couldn’t remember if I’d read Silas Marner in High School. We read Boswell’s Life of Johnson in 10th Grade (which was the wrong book for that age group). My experience with George Eliot was slight: I read The Mill on the Floss for a Victorian Novels course. Of course, I have all of George Eliot’s books so it was a matter of finding Silas Marner. It was a quick read so I see why Silas Marner found its way into the High School English curriculum.
Silas Marner is a weaver who gets framed for a theft and leaves town. He sets up a new residence in the town of Raveloe. But Silas Marner is bitter from his experience so he becomes a miser and a near-recluse. Over the years, Marner’s hoard of gold mounts. And, of course, not trusting banks Marner keeps all that gold in his cottage. You can figure out what happens: the gold gets stolen and Marner is crushed…again. But, through a simple twist of fate, a three-year-old child enters Silas Marner’s life and completely transforms it.
Yes, Silas Marner caused my eyes to get misty. George Eliot knows how to tell an emotional, sentimental story. I enjoyed Silas Marner and if you read it, you will too. GRADE: B+
I liked it and my wife hated it. Can’t please eeryone.
Jerry, George Eliot tells a compelling story. I can see why SILAS MARNER became a book High School English teachers shared with their students.
I recommend MIDDLEMARCH to anyone who is interested in reading more Elliott. Yes, it’s a doorstop of a book, but the intertwining of so many lives in the title town makes the pages fly by. Virginia Woolf called it the wisest book written in English.
Deb, I have at least three different editions of MIDDLEMARCH. As you say, it’s a long book. Maybe this summer… I’ve enjoyed the two George Eliot novels I’ve read.
No, no, no, no, no!
Once was bad enough. Never again. If I come across a copy of SILAS MARNER I’ll beat it to death with a stick.
Jeff, I had that same reaction to some of the books we read in High School. But, as an adult, I have a different perspective now. I can see why Bill Crider loves Silas Marner.
I mildly enjoyed it, but I always jumped in alarm at the part where the newly-minted orphan brings a touch of Al Jolson to the tale by looking down at her dead mother and crying “Mammy!”
Dan, there are a lot of moving moments in SILAS MARNER. George Eliot knew how to bring a tear to the eyes of her readers.
Yes… but “MAMMY” ?!?!??
Most folks I know who were handed Silas Marner in High School had Jeff’s opinion. I was spared that. We got heavy doses of Shakepeare (Loved it) and Dickens (Never again! Nary a word!). The only other book I recall was The Return of the Native. From that I learned what a “reddleman” does, and that’s about all. Emil und die Detektive in German class was miles ahead in entertainment value compared to most of the fodder in English.
Art, much of the force-fed “literature” from Junior High and High School are lost in the mists of my memory. I remember ETHAN FROME, and ROMEO & JULIET, MACBETH, WHITE FANG, CALL OF THE WILD, and LIFE OF JOHNSON. Somehow, Dickens wasn’t taught nor George Eliot. But we did read TOM SAWYER.
We read A TALE OF TWO CITIES, DAVID COPPERFIELD, and GREAT EXPECTATIONS. I’ve liked most Dickens I’ve read. Never read ETHAN FROME (Jackie says she did) and for whatever reason, instead of the more common Jack London titles we read MARTIN EDEN. (I won’t soon forget that end!) We did ROMEO and JULIET and JULIUS CAESAR and a couple of other Shakespeare titles. Another I could have done without: GIANTS IN THE EARTH.
I was in an advanced English class and we read DEATH IN VENICE, DUBLINERS and PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, and the like.
Jeff, I never got around to GIANTS IN THE EARTH. I did take an advanced WORLD LITERATURE course when I was a Senior. Read Kafka, Camus, and Graham Greene among others. I didn’t read James Joyce until College.
Glad you liked it, George. I’m a Dickens fan, too. I read MIDDLEMARCH in grad school. It’s long, all right. Great novel, though. As for GIANTS IN THE EARTH, that’s one dark book.
Bill, with Deb’s recommendation and yours, I’ll be reading MIDDLEMARCH this summer when I have time to tackle a big, long book.
MIDDLEMARCH has been on my “to read” list forever – people seem to be polarized in their opinions about it – so I will try and read it when you do.
Jeff, it looks like MIDDLEMARCH is close to a 1,000 pages. I’m guessing I’ll read it in July when I have a big chunk of time.
that’s one I’d try on audio
btw I’m still waiting for the jane bryant quinn book I’ve been waiting for nearly a month and a half still #6 on the list, with numerous ones on the way to others on the wait list
The library only has 3 copies of the pogue and I’m #9
Maggie, you’ll find that Jane Bryant Quinn book worth the wait!
Dan–I agree that “Mammy” is disconcerting for Anericans to hear/read (shades of Hattie McDaniel in GWTW), but in the 18th century, it was standard English pronunciation for mommy/mummy; it is still pronounced that way in Ireland today. In fact, Angelica Huston starred in an Irish movie called “The Mammy” but naturally the title had to be changed when it was released in America.
I read Silas Marner, but don’t remember either hating or loving it. I do remember also reading a Harold Robbins book, which at the time I wasn’t aware of what genre he was considered to be part of (trashy modern fiction). It was a stone for danny fisher, and I remember liking it and being surprised when I tried another and it was totally different. I’m surprised ASFDF got approved by the school board due to Robbins other works. I had to go to his website to be sure I remembered the title correctly, and was surprised to see he considered himself the best writer around.
Maggie, I was reading HAROLD ROBBINS in High School, too! He was a Big Name back then.
I’ve told people about having a harold robbins assigned in high school, and no one believes it
Maggie, you had some very enlightened teachers! I read Harold Robbins books in High School, but with a different book jacket disguising them.
I have almost never enjoyed a book I had to read. That includes ones I myself chose for my book group. I am sure therapy would explain this. Most of the books they assigned our generation were too adult for teenagers. Whenever I have read them later I am always amazed at how great there are. ETHAN FROME is my favorite example.
Patti, I liked ETHAN FROME in High School when I first read it. I reread it 30 years later for an American Literature class I was taking and marveled at Edith Wharton’s skill. Like you, I’m not a fan of mandatory reading.
I liked this one well enough but didn’t like The Mill On The Floss. I think the book I had to read in high school that I disliked the most was Moby Dick.
Rick, MOBY DICK is a long, difficult book. Many readers struggle to get through it.
I’m struggling to remember any book I read in high school that was a class assignment and I can’t come up with anything.
Bob, that just goes to show the weakness of our educational system.
two books I remember reading in high school, not assigned in class were Dracula and Gone With The Wind. I enjoyed both of them
For some reason our school’s English department was strongly Anglophilic. I’m quite sure they never assigned an American novel, no London, no Twain, no Hawthorne.. There was short fiction in one textbook: Washington Irving, Poe, Twain Jumping Frog. I didn’t read an American writer who got my attention until I had occasion to read some Mencken in an American History class, and then everything changed…
Art, I didn’t get exposed to Mencken until I was a freshman in College. I started out as a Journalism major and we studied Mencken and George Orwell that first year. Great stuff!
It might just show the weakness of my memory, George! I know I read books at home: Harold Robbins, AC. Doyle, Ian Fleming, and Fanny Hill!
Bob, I admire your wide range of reading interests!
After reading about the film adaptation, I’m certainly going to read the book this year.
There was once a SILAS MARNER joke on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show”. They are trying to find the actual age of a child who claims to be a sophomore:
Bess: Who is Silas Marner?
Babysitter: Huh?
Bess: She’s a freshman.
Trust me, it plays better than it reads.
Steve, that’s very clever! Sadly, there’s nothing on TV currently that has the quality and wit of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW.