George Eliot, Silas Marner

Nathan Uglow (Trinity All Saints, Leeds)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1861

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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On the 28th November 1860, George Eliot wrote in her diary that the idea of

Silas Marner

had come to her all of a sudden while she was researching for her historical novel,

Romola

. By the April 10th the following year it was finished and dispatched from Italy to her publisher John Blackwood in Edinburgh. Just over a month later it was already published and she was making a note of its success back in England. That success has continued to this day, and it remains one of the most popular novels ever written.

Stylistically, Silas Marner is the last of Eliot's rustic novels (after Scenes from Clerical Life (1857), Adam Bede (1858), andMill on the Floss (1860)). These novels carefully distinguish and exploit an opposition between the false values of modern life (the city, isolated

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1662 words

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Silas Marner". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2085, accessed 27 November 2024.]

George Eliot, Silas Marner

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