Rating: 
Summary: Moving Portrait of A Man And His Life of Change
Review: What can the reader of today find in a story about a weaver, who felt unable to assimilate into society, that he keeps to himself in his cottage? Quite a bit. As we read "Silas Marner" and watch him caress the only thing he has to love, the gold he's hoarded after so many years, we share in his grief when he comes home and sees it's been stolen. And the fact that it was the ne'er-do-well son of one of the town's most important people makes us more sympathetic. For each day, there are so many Silas Marners out there today, men and women who feel they are outsiders and who are victimized by those in a higher social rung. But we learn with Silas the more important meaning of life, when his old stack of gold is replaced by the new....the golden tresses of the child who wonders into this cottage to change his life forever. With rich characterizations, George Eliot creates a story that will move even the hardest heart. But look beyond the surface and see the indictment of the townspeople as well, who forced Silas into the outside, and then who welcome him.
Rating: 
Summary: Good lessons, but dull
Review: Eliot is clearly a master - I've read "Mill on the Floss" and loved it, and I look forward to reading "Middlemarch." However, "Silas Marner" was a bit of a disappointment. The supporting characters are well-drawn as is the town, which is really the star of this book. I found the character of Silas Marner to be vague and unbelievable. His growing isolation is described in a fair amount of detail, but his transformation is glossed over too quickly. It is simply not believable that someone who shuns others would be so willing to adopt a child and change so quickly. The message that love can transform even the most hardened person is beautiful, and the ending is wonderful, but I found it difficult to make it through most of this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite all-time novels
Review: I first read Silas Marner when I was 18 years old, and loved every word. I started reading it again immediately after finishing it! As said in other reviews, perhaps 9th grade is indeed too early because at that age, this older language style is difficult to "get into" quickly enough to hold their interest. I found myself wrapped in this little town with its odd characters and gossip, and wished I'd lived there. The imagery is so strong and sweet I still refer to the scenery evoked by this novel when I read completely unrelated historical articles! The story itself cannot be called remarkable because it is one of the basic stories about humanity and what matters in life. Yet George Eliot surpasses all others in the telling of it. There is a reason this book is on all the reading lists -- it is a great achievement.
Rating:
Summary: A small literary masterpiece.
Review: Newspaper readers were invited recently to submit their choices for the greatest works published in the English language. When the choices were totalled, two works by Shakespeare featured in the top ten. Also featured, I was pleased to see, was a novel by George Eliot. Internet users, familiar with her works, will probably guess which of her novels was chosen. For those unfamiliar with her works, the best one to start with is "Silas Marner", a much shorter one. It is short, it is easy, it even works well in schools (as I can testify), and yet it is undoubtedly a masterpiece. George Eliot sets her 1861 novel in the early decades of the nineteenth century in rural England. Silas Marner is a weaver. In the pattern that life weaves, he usually features as a victim. Because he is unjustly "framed", he loses his reputation and his betrothed in the town where he grew up. After years working as a weaver and living like a hermit in a rural district then, he is robbed by an unknown thief who uncovers and makes off with the cache of gold guineas Silias keeps under his floor. Happiness and joy come to Silas, however, and at the end of the novel he is told, "Nobody could be happier than we are". George Eliot tells her tale with a mixture of womanly sympathy, sharp observation, tact, and humour. Her depiction of a long-gone past, and her clear pointing of right and wrong impulses, give the story qualities that are sometimes found in morality plays or in fairy tales. Don't skip over the scenes in the local inn, the Rainbow, where the simple-minded rustics discuss relevant issues, including the existence of ghosts. For those who appreciate hearing good literature read aloud, I recommend the unabridged audio format of "Silas Marner" where the reader is Andrew Sachs. As you might expect of this fine English actor, who made Manuel from Barcelona so memorable in "Fawlty Towers", he is especially wonderful in portraying the argumentative, credulous, muddle-headed rustics that foregather at the Rainbow. His reading extends for nearly seven hours.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Truths -- Superbly Expressed
Review: There are few great novels about people who are basically good and who are, in the end, rewarded for it. I can think of only three others I have read in this genre that had any literary merit: Eliot's ADAM BEDE; Elizabeth Gaskell's CRANFORD; and Oliver Goldsmith's THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. I can see why SILAS MARNER is usually regarded as a novel to be read by the young, if only because it reinforces values that most of us see as desirable. Granted that Marner starts out as a miser, if only because he is so isolated from the rural community in which he lives. When Marner's small fortune is stolen, a strange thing happens: His neighbors gather closer to him and help him, drawing him out of himself and illuminating the goodness that was always inside of him. Marner's neighbor, Dolly Winthrop -- a poor, inarticulate wheelwight's wife who does everything she can to make Silas a part of the village of Raveloe -- particularly shines through in an excellent supporting role, one of many in the book. When a toddler whose mother dies crawls into Marner's house, the process begins to accelerate as he adopts her. The weaver now has someone to live for; and the love between him and the little Eppie begins to flower. Good seems such undynamic a quality in literature. George Eliot is one of the few writers who can make the tribulations of a good person worthwhile reading. In weaver and his neighbors, Eliot has created an entire community that strives for the greatest good (with the sole exception of Dunsey Cass, who steals Marner's fortune). The best books always make you wonder what happens next; and SILAS MARNER kept me turning the pages, marvelling at my own reactions to what I would once have thought was too simple and flimsy to engage my attention. George Eliot is a writer of many surprises and many surprising strengths. I had approached this book only because I was filling in a gap in my reading. Having read it, I urge anyone to pick up this book if you are young and hope for the best in life -- or come to it, like myself, an adult who has been "nicked by the scythe," who has forgotten some simple truths about which he needed reminding.
Rating:
Summary: A classic!!!
Review: Very worthwhile- a classic! Everyone should read this once- lots of valuable lessons to be learned as well as entertainment to be had.
Rating:
Summary: Eliot Sentiment
Review: This book is as sentimental as "Middlemarch" is complex. I found that the long introductory sections made for a difficult set up to the primary situation. The narrative involving the actual bond between Marner and the child were condensed and telegraphed so quickly that the reader is forced to take the author's word that there was an attachment. As a result, the emotional climax feels like a tear-jerker rather than an honest resolution of the characters' lives. It gives the impression of a 19th century "Afterschool Special."
Rating: 
Summary: Nature or nurture
Review: The modern world with its IVF initiatives and other assisted fertility procedures have lead us to reflect on the role of nature and nurture as the prime developmental instrument in the character and personality of children - and also of the rights of parents. But it was a great surprise to me to find George Eliot writing of this so long ago - and I think there is little doubt where her sentiments lay (but then the issue in 'Silas Marner' was clouded by the involvement of the innocent and victimised, versus the guilty and self-possessed - but I'm sure that was written by design to emphasise a point). For a while 'Silas Marner' is a detective story. I had always thought Edgar Alan Poe was the originator of the detective story - but perhaps 'Silas Marner' may have been a trigger. This is an interesting mystery because we know who the culprit is and who the victim is - but will the culprit be exposed? and if so, how? For me, the circumstances of the crime was a little contrived but it did create a stimulating situation. But then the events of the story overtake the mystery and displace its resolution. When the resolution does come it is a real shock, not only to the reader but to characters as well - the ending is gripping and brings forth such desires for the four principle characters that I found it quite breathtaking to read. Some reviewers have bemoaned the use of this novel as a student reading text. I agree with them. I remember struggling through books inappropriate to my time when I was a student. It is only when people get older that they start becoming attuned to their history and the background to their society. The first George Eliot novel I read was 'Adam Bede' and its portayal of the Methodism I grew up with as an innovative cult was fascinating. But, as a youth, I'm sure it would have been just wierd. What would I recommend as a student text? Something current and engaging. As I have suggested elsewhere Philip K Dick's 'A Scanner Darkly' with its non-judgemental observations on the tragedy of individual destruction by the use of drugs, might have many levels of value to a student learning about literature.
Rating:
Summary: Deep thoughts about Silas Marner
Review: I think this book is a big pile o' POO. I wanna poop all over it, all day, constantly. Then, maybe after serveral hours of tourture, I will release my dog to rip it's poo soiled pages apart and do it justice.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasurable but deathly slow
Review: In retrospect, I actually enjoyed the characters of the book. They were very well developed and had great depth. However, it was a chore to finish. The book started and ended with me spellbound, but the middle was the slowest I've read. Overall, I wouldn't say I hated the book, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody but the most PATIENT reader.
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