George Eliot Author:Silas Marner "Silas Marner" is, in George Eliot's own words, 'a story of old-fashioned village life', whose Wordsworthian theme is 'the remedial influences of pure, natural human relations.' Long favorite among her novels and often regarded as a mere mortal 'faery-tale', it contains, along with its genial humour and its mellow portraiture, many complex ironi... more »es and a great deal of pointed social criticism. Marner's spiritual death and his resurrection through the child Eppie and the neighbourliness of the village community have, as Mrs Leavis points out, 'a multiple typicality'; through his case are examined the dire effects of the Industrial Revolution and the rich human possibilities of a way of life that, even in George Eliot's lifetime, was passing away.« less