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The Lifted Veil
by
George Eliot
Latimer, a sensitive and intellectual man, finds he has clairvoyant powers: he has a vision of a woman, "pale, fatal-eyed", who he later meets: she is Bertha Grant, his brother's fiancee. Entranced and bewildered, Latimer is unwilling to take heed of the warning visions which beset him.
Paperback, 91 pages
Published
January 7th 1986
by Penguin Books
(first published July 1859)
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Sep 13, 2009
Werner
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of 19th century fiction
Shelves:
science-fiction
This book won't be every reader's cup of tea. As the above description suggests, its subject matter was atypical for Eliot --though she wrote it in 1859, her publishers found it so different from her usual work that they delayed printing it until 1878. Premised as it is on psychic phenomena --flashes of telepathy and precognition, which in Eliot's day were just beginning to attract the attention of some intellectuals, and of the public (the titular "veil" is the one that hides the future)-- I wo...more
This is the only book I read on the train that I actually brought with me to read on the train. One of Melville House Books' Art of the Novella series, I was drawn to it as soon as I saw the author. I read Middlemarch a year or so back and absolutely loved it, but I hadn't yet read anything else by Eliot. As I am given to understand, this work both is and is not representative of her novel writing. It of course features her empathetic characterizations and high-minded idealism, but in this novel...more
Page 30:
But there is no tyranny more complete than that which a self-centred negative nature exercises over a morbidly sensitive nature perpetually craving sympathy and support.
Page 43:
There is no short cut, no patent tram-road, to wisdom: after all the centuries of invention, the soul's path lies through the thorny wilderness which must be still trodden in solitude, with bleeding feet, with sobs for help, as it was trodden by them of old time.
Page 54:
The easiest way to deceive a poet is to tell...more
But there is no tyranny more complete than that which a self-centred negative nature exercises over a morbidly sensitive nature perpetually craving sympathy and support.
Page 43:
There is no short cut, no patent tram-road, to wisdom: after all the centuries of invention, the soul's path lies through the thorny wilderness which must be still trodden in solitude, with bleeding feet, with sobs for help, as it was trodden by them of old time.
Page 54:
The easiest way to deceive a poet is to tell...more
Perfectly likable, provocative little ditty. Five-star insight with okay character and shaky plot. The following is a quote I want to add as a little coda that exemplifies some of my reservations about Absence of Mind. Yes, I'm using another review to further review something else.
"Conceive the condition of the human mind if all propositions whatsoever were self-evident except one, which was to be come self-evident at the close of a summer's day, but in the meantime might be the subject of quest...more
"Conceive the condition of the human mind if all propositions whatsoever were self-evident except one, which was to be come self-evident at the close of a summer's day, but in the meantime might be the subject of quest...more
Nov 18, 2009
Kirsti
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
neurasthenics, Trent Reznor, people who wear leather and vinyl in ninety-degree weather
Plotwise, this is not that much more complicated than an episode of Murder, She Wrote. But the prose style is gorgeous, and I felt all swoony and doomy while reading it, and that's a perfectly good feeling to have on rainy November days.
Some of my favorite passages:
The city looked so thirsty that the broad river seemed to me a sheet of metal; and the blackened statues, as I passed under their blank gaze, along the unending bridge, with their ancient garments and their saintly crowns, seemed to m...more
Some of my favorite passages:
The city looked so thirsty that the broad river seemed to me a sheet of metal; and the blackened statues, as I passed under their blank gaze, along the unending bridge, with their ancient garments and their saintly crowns, seemed to m...more
http://virtualmargin.blogspot.com/2011/08/lifted-veil-33100.html
So George Eliot wrote a gothic-horror/science fiction piece?
The Lifted Veil is quite a departure from Eliot's other work. Written only a few months after Adam Bede, it was at first rejected by her publisher. However it now seems to be getting the critical attention it deserves.
The story follows Latimer, a self-described sensitive poet who also happens to be clairvoyant -- he can see visions of the future, as well as into the minds...more
So George Eliot wrote a gothic-horror/science fiction piece?
The Lifted Veil is quite a departure from Eliot's other work. Written only a few months after Adam Bede, it was at first rejected by her publisher. However it now seems to be getting the critical attention it deserves.
The story follows Latimer, a self-described sensitive poet who also happens to be clairvoyant -- he can see visions of the future, as well as into the minds...more
Now I know where Stephanie Meyers got one of her ideas for "Twilight's" characterization! Latimer, the frail, pale, and poetic narrator, Latimer, is a man who can hear the thoughts of others and predict the future; yet his visions are involuntary and they soon become a burden, preventing him from living his life. He seems to have access to read anyone's mind, except Bertha's. THAT is the intrigue and reason for his love. Isn't that what Edward LOVED about Bella? Not only his sensibility for her...more
In TLV Eliot explores the theme of extrasensory perception, which was in vogue when she wrote the novella. The main character, Latimer, has the ability to perceive what others are thinking and to see into the future. Unfortunately Latimer seems unable to them use these extraordinary powers to his advantage. To the contrary, he seems burdened by them and in fact lives his life a victim to fate. He is locked in a loveless, even hateful, marriage to Bertha, one that he foresaw and possibly could ha...more
This was my first book by George Eliot, and I noticed that many people say that it wasn't e type of book that she normally wrote. I look forward to reading more George Eliot as to do a comparison with this book.
This is about a clairvoyant man who has a vision of a woman, who he later discovers is his brother's fiancé.
It is written as if this man was writing the story of his life and you are reading it at a later date.
It tells about his life and his various visions, and how he struggles wit...more
This is about a clairvoyant man who has a vision of a woman, who he later discovers is his brother's fiancé.
It is written as if this man was writing the story of his life and you are reading it at a later date.
It tells about his life and his various visions, and how he struggles wit...more
A bit florid in its descriptions for modern tastes, but I quite liked this little look inside the lonliness and madness of a clairvoyant who doesn't have the courage to act on any of his precognition. He knows that if he marries this one woman, she will hate him, and he her, but he wants her in the present and so goes through with pursuing her. That's pretty much the moral crux of the book - knowing the future is worthless if you don't take responsibility and do something about it. Such a one-no...more
The Lifted Veil is a novella or short story by George Eliot. The story is told by Latimer, who has just been told he has not much longer to live, and looks back on the events of his earlier life. What makes this story slightly unusual, at least taking into acount the time it was written, is that Latimer seems to suffer from some sort of illness and this may or may not be related to his ability to read the emotions and/or thoughts of other people. This ability is the lifted veil of the title. It'...more
Oh man. What an odd departure for Eliot. It's especially striking to me since I'm currently in the middle of Middlemarch. I like gothic fantasy, but this was almost impossible to enjoy because I imagined the narrator smelled of sour milk and had runny eyes even as a young man. Ugh. Anyway, he's a sickly, pale clairvoyant who falls for the only woman whose mind he cannot penetrate. Sound familiar? My head hurts.
Librivox, thank you for making it possible for me to get through this kind of story i...more
Librivox, thank you for making it possible for me to get through this kind of story i...more
This is a seriously disturbing piece of work. The narrator's prescience is dealt with in a very matter-of-fact way, and is all the more creepy because of it. Written with the fluency and complexity of sentence structure that is one of Eliot's strengths, the first person narration puts it apart from her other work. It's full of her characteristic insights into human nature - my favourite is 'the fear of poison is feeble against the sense of thirst' (talking about loving the wrong person, obviousl...more
I was always able to pinpoint the exact moment I fell in love with a book. It's the moment my mind strains to move faster than my eyes while, at the same time, longing to stop and marvel at the view. That feeling, the push and pull of loving a book? I never got it with George Eliot. Don't get me wrong - I like her books quite a lot. So far I've read Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss and Daniel Deronda, and admired their construction, their characters, the style - was in awe of them at times, to...more
I really enjoyed this. If it wasn't for the irrelevant B-movie ending, this would be a 5-star work. Until that ending (bringing the dead back to life with...a blood transfusion...only to tell a secret and die), it is a brilliant examination of fate, knowledge, and mystery. The narrator, if we are to believe him, is a sensitive, poet-type, who, after a childhood illness (a proto-comic book plot), developed clairvoyant abilities.
This clairvoyance, however, ruins everything for him. Rather than gi...more
This clairvoyance, however, ruins everything for him. Rather than gi...more
I shudder to give an Eliot book two stars, but this just wasn't my favorite.
I do admire the integration of Eliot's 'fringe' interests into her fiction -- here, phrenology and "animal magnetism," or what we would call psychic ability/mind reading today -- against all popular opinion.
The novella is worth a read for the moral question that frames the story: "If you could have chosen a better fate but didn't, what kind of person does that make you?"
I do admire the integration of Eliot's 'fringe' interests into her fiction -- here, phrenology and "animal magnetism," or what we would call psychic ability/mind reading today -- against all popular opinion.
The novella is worth a read for the moral question that frames the story: "If you could have chosen a better fate but didn't, what kind of person does that make you?"
The Art of the Novella, published by Melville House, is an excellent series of beautifully designed short works, many of them less known gems by canonical authors. Well-worth checking out (or collecting).
The Lifted Veil is a haunting early piece by George Eliot about a tortured clairvoyant. I'm mostly familiar with her large novel Middlemarch, but Eliot does an admirable job with the small amount of space.
The Lifted Veil is a haunting early piece by George Eliot about a tortured clairvoyant. I'm mostly familiar with her large novel Middlemarch, but Eliot does an admirable job with the small amount of space.
This novella just didn't cut it for me -- it was supposed to be full of metaphysical/mystical/superstitious horror, or something, but it wasn't worth the time that George Eliot took to develop it. The characters weren't that great, the plot was a bit of mess, and I'm very greatful that this was apparently the one foray Eliot took from her normal style of writing more grounded realistic fiction in her career.
I actually downloaded the Project Gutenberg version of this for iBooks on the iPad and was surprised to find how awesomely easy it is to read classic literature on it. The built in dictionary in iBooks works without being connected to wifi, and since we don't have a 3G iPad this was very convenient.
As far as the novella goes, it read a lot like a ghost story, it was creepy and in some ways dissimilar from alot of George Elliot that I have read. The Lifted Veil is about a sensitive and sickly iso...more
As far as the novella goes, it read a lot like a ghost story, it was creepy and in some ways dissimilar from alot of George Elliot that I have read. The Lifted Veil is about a sensitive and sickly iso...more
This book is entirely different from any of George Eliot's other writings. It is kind of science-fictiony in that it relates the tale of a young man who is stricken ill and during that illness he acquires the powers of ESP and clairvoyant abilities. The young man is a conceited narrator in relating his tale to us and for that reason, he annoyed me. However, as you get to the end of his story, he relates to us a tale of revivification through blood transfusion and it is this tale that makes the w...more
2 likes · like · see review
This is not for everyone. It really has no plot to speak of but I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting, which isn't a tall order since the ebook was only 50 pages. What is compelling about The Lifted Veil is the writing. Eliot makes what is essentially a man telling us the events of his life a rich tapestry. There are elements of the supernatural which are tame by modern standards but are still interesting to read.
This is a sacrilege, but I didn't care for The Lifted Veil. I don't know if it was that Eliot took a very long time setting up Latimer's state of mind or that she rushed to the finish. But while the beginning and end are related, the middle (approximately 90% of the story) could be a standalone piece.
Oct 23, 2010
Laura
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Laura by:
Bettie
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
this is the first book of George Eliot that I haven't liked. It didn't seem to have a story, for me, at least. I enjoyed her other books immensely, especially Silas Marner and Adam Bede which were particular favourites. I may read this one again some other time and be more receptive to it.
The Lifted Veil is a haunting, creepy and thought-provoking short story. I enjoyed it very much. The story is 664 Kindle locations. I wish it had been a little longer. I feel the author could have offered us much more following the death of the lady's maid.
While this story is short, it isn't a quick read. You'll want to slow down to capture the emotion in Eliot's writing.
This story reminded me of Wuthering Heights. That book is a retelling of a tragic life. The Lifted Veil is a foretelling of...more
While this story is short, it isn't a quick read. You'll want to slow down to capture the emotion in Eliot's writing.
This story reminded me of Wuthering Heights. That book is a retelling of a tragic life. The Lifted Veil is a foretelling of...more
I was surprised to come across this little known novella. I'd never heard of it. After reading it, I know why. It is very bleak. The main character is perpetually sad and unsympathetic. The premise was promising, but the book failed to reach the potential.
At first I wasn't sure what to think about Eliot's short story but after I finished it I thought it was a fantastic portrayal of mankind's sinful nature. The characters, although were far from good people, were compeling and complex. I really do like her as a writer!
Oddly, this novella had many parallels to True Blood. Man can hear people's thoughts, which drive him crazy, so he falls in love with the one woman whose thoughts he cannot hear. Sadly though, she's not a vampire, just a bitch.
i love books which at the very end make me say "ahhhh!" not like in quenching thirst, but like, i'm in on the joke now, i see what you did there, pal! this book was a 3 for sure until the last several pages, but then the last paragraph reminded me why i was there and the entire journey in like two sentences. well played, eliot. you have won my audienceship for middlemarch, now.
Delightfully creepy. Eliot's plotting is a bit hurried near the end, but her narrative voice is superb-- like Dorian Grey, if Dorian Grey had a more aggressive editor and far greater narrative subtlety.
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mary Ann (Marian) Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity.
She used a ma...more
More about George Eliot...
Mary Ann (Marian) Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity.
She used a ma...more
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“We learn words by rote, but not their meaning; that must be paid for with our life-blood, and printed in the subtle fibres of our nerves.”
—
13 people liked it
“I have never fully unbosomed myself to any human being; I have never been encouraged to trust much in the sympathy of my fellow men. But we have all a chance of meeting with some pity, some tenderness, some charity, when we are dead: it is the living only who cannot be forgiven - the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind. While the heart beats, bruise it - it is your only opportunity; while the eye can still turn towards you with moist, timid entreaty, freeze it with an icy unanswering gaze; while the ear, that delicate messenger to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, can still take in the tones of kindness, put it off with hard civility, or sneering compliment, or envious affectation of indifference; while the creative brain can still throb with the sense of injustice, with the yearning for brotherly recognition - make haste - oppress it with your ill-considered judgements, your trivial comparisons, your careless misrepresentations. The heart will by and by be still - ubi saeoa indignatio ulterius cor lacerate nequit; the eye will cease to entreat; the ear will be deaf; the brain will have ceased from all wants as well as from all work. Then your charitable speeches may find vent; then you may remember and pity the toil and the struggle and the failure; then you may give due honour to the work achieved; then you may find extenuation for errors, and may consent to bury them ("The Lifted Veil")”
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