Every time Silas Marner is mentioned, it seems like a collective groan goes up in some high school classroom somewhere. I didn't have to read it in high school, and am glad I was able to wait until later in life. I don't think I would've enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I did had I read it when I was 16 or so. I definitely wouldn't have enjoyed it when I was nine years old which was Ralphie's age in A Christmas Story when his class was discussing this book. Seriously, why are a bunch of fourth graders reading Silas Marner? I could barely follow all the action in Bunnicula at that age. 
 With such prejudices instilled in my brain, I launched into this book expecting to at least dislike it, but I'm happy to report that I was disappointed in my premature assessment. Contempt prior to investigation foils me once again. 
 All I knew about the book was that Silas Marner was a miser, and George Eliot was a girl. Hearing "miser," I instantly linked him to Ebenezer Scrooge, and assumed, once again erroneously, that I'd be reading about another "tight-fisted hand at the grindstone... a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." I was actually looking forward to reading about such a wretch, but I was again disappointed, and I'm glad I was. Silas is a much more tragic figure, and I can relate to him very well. All he wants is to be left alone. He causes no trouble for anyone, conducts his business courteously with his customers, and then minds his own business. But, I'm jumping the gun a bit. 
 In early life, Silas is severely, and I do mean severely, dicked over by his best friend, and his entire religious congregation. He sadly leaves his town, and having lost faith in humanity, starts a life in another town as a weaver. His needs are small, and not being a man given to extravagances, he begins to collect gold. Soon he begins to love the gold, but not because it makes him rich. He likes it the way a philatelist likes his stamp collection; it's a hobby. Marner takes this to a bit of an extreme by practically falling in love with the stuff, but since he doesn't like people, it seems harmless enough. 
 (view spoiler)[Then one day his gold is stolen, and he falls into a deep depression. People in the village try to cheer him up in some rather amusing ways, but it's all for naught. Then this one or two year old child appears in his house one snowy evening, and her dead, drug-addict mother is found just outside Marner's house. Marner takes a bit of a shine to the child and raises her. Life gets a bit better, and in several years it's just downright hunky-dory for everyone. There's a cloud on the horizon involving the other characters in the book, but it blows over, and everything stays hunky-dory. (The other characters are interesting, but I'm not going to review them in here, so you'll just have to read the book for yourself to get the skinny). (hide spoiler)] 
 Awwww, isn't that just so sweet? Yeah, it kind of is. I'm normally not down with such feel-good flim-flam, but I liked it here for some reason. 
 A couple of other things to note: At first I thought I wasn't going to like the writing style of the book. It seemed like Eliot was trying to write in the old style (which she should've been doing since she was writing during the time period of the old style), but it seemed like she just wasn't quite making it. Then for the second and third quarters of the book, she hits a flow that locks into that old style, and it's a pure pleasure to read. Then for the last quarter of the book, the lapses back into prose that makes me consider her a wannabe. I don't know how that happens all in the same book, and it might just be me. Read it for yourself to be the judge. 
 Another thing: I thoroughly enjoyed the antics of the secondary and tertiary characters because they reminded me of Mayberry, USA. They were all so clueless and stupid, and I always enjoy reading about such. 
 So, I guess that's it for the review. I recommend checking out this book if you like good prose, a story of... well, redemption isn't quite right, but it's close enough for government work, I reckon. Normally I like to be closer, but it's late, and it'll have to do. Also, there's evidently social commentary and the like peppered throughout this thing, so if you like that, then you should also check it out. I'm not great at catching that stuff in novels, but it did seem like Eliot wasn't all that impressed with organized religion through most of the book. You be the judge.