The Lifted Veil: Brother Jacob

by George Eliot

Book Overview

First published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1859, "The Lifted Veil" is now one of George Eliot's most widely read and critically discussed short stories. A dark fantasy drawing on contemporary scientific interest in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology, and experiments in revification, it is Eliot's anatomy of her own moral philosophy. Narrated by an egocentric, morbid young clairvoyant man, the story also explores fiction's ability to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199555052
• ISBN13: 9780199555055
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Between Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll

A little-read story of George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" is a lovely example of the intersection between humanities and science in 1859: it ends with a revivification scene worthy of Mary Shelley. Written just before Eliot admitted to being the author of *Adam Bede*, the emasculated protagonist, Latimer, mirrors Eliot herself in his desire for solitude. Exceedingly well-crafted Victorian writing. (I don't know the other story *Brother Jacob* well: it espouses that the wages of sin are embarassment and ostracization.)