Silas Marner
By: George Eliot / Narrated By: Andrew Sachs
Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
Ya know? I’m seriously considering what-all we DID read in High School…?!
When my husband asked what I was listening to, I innocently replied: Silas Marner because I already had a good mix of genres for Women’s History Month, but I’d wanted a Classic as well. Flannery O’Connor was out… I’d been doing some audiobooks on Russia, on Soviet Russia, and I’d been pondering Putin… soooo… I was sooo not ready for Ms. O’Connor’s unique, and often horrifying, vision of Life. He’d responded by affirming that he’d read it as a Freshman in High School, something I could not say of myself.
Okaaaay… Heart of Darkness? Check. Dickens, as in A Tale of Two Cities? Check. Something everybody seemed to love except for me: The Catcher in the Rye? Check but >yawn< . Seriously, I was in Advanced Placement English, and all I can remember is that our teacher, the WONDROUS Ms. Lashus, told us she was going to attempt to make us think for ourselves. We read a bit, but mostly, I thiiiink she left us to our own conclusions, as long as we expressed our concepts and opinions with text to back us up.
I do NOT remember a heavy catalog of reading, reading, reading. Arguing, yes.
Silas Marner? Uhm… sorry, just getting to it at this late age cuz o’ it being a Classic written by a woman, who HAD to, given the time, use a man’s name in order to write the serious fiction that she’d wanted to write; she didn’t want to be known for the lighter fare that was automatically associated with women writers. Plus, she wanted to keep separate what she was known for, be it as critic, translator, editor. Might I give a nod to the woman she was, to Mary Ann Evans?
We don’t really know the timeframe of the book, but I’m guessing around the Napoleonic wars given that there are a feeeew mentions of fashion (A low neck and a high waist), and by a few minor discussions that minor characters had amongst themselves. It doesn’t really matter because:
This is a tale rather universally experienced. Silas Marner is an AnyMan who doesn’t look for much in life except for a wife, a home, a family, and maybe to continue weaving linens at his loom. What was a steady friendship goes awry when he’s accused by said friend of stealing a large amount of money from a dying man. Lots are drawn to see what the Will of God is, and Marner is found guilty. His engagement now broken, his reputation forever ruined, he leaves for distant lands where he keeps to himself, thus earning the scorn and enmity of the new townsmen.
His only comfort comes from working long and hard and amassing a great amount of wealth that goes unspent. It is, however, taken out each night and counted. Here, Marner finds his sense of self and of peace.
On the right side of the tracks, the Squire Cass and his sons are of rather dubious reputations. One son being wholly without merit, another being quite dissolute and secretly wed to a young woman who turns to opium for comfort as that son, Godfrey, won’t acknowledge her in public.
Two things change Marner’s life. The utter scalawag takes Marner’s hoard and steals away into the night. And Godfrey’s young wife takes their child through an icy wintry snowstorm to demand acknowledgement but dies before she gets there, leaving her toddling daughter to find Marner.
Life changed.
And so Eliot has crafted a story ripe with rich metaphors, Marner’s gold suddenly found in the richest of emotions with his young ward, whom he loves as a daughter. The two grow together, and all comes to a head at the end where choices are made, secrets come to light, and I’ll leave you to the rest.
I’ve three different narrations of Silas Marner in my Library, one by John Peakes, and one I was truly drawn towards by the pheNOMenal Derek Perkins. -But- Perkins is such a Fave Narrator of mine, and some of his performances have him firmly placed in my mind as: History, War, and just plain ol’ Heavy Duty Listening. Further, this version by Andrew Sachs is in the Plus Catalog, so it’s free for Audible Members. What’s not to love? Besides which, Sachs does a tremendous job with a tale that has rustic characters who feel emotions to the utter extreme. Men, women, Men of the Cloth, Sachs delivers them so very well. Other than his voice for Eppi all grown, all is truly well-done. He has a worried Marner stammering, unsure, faithful unto his religion until cast out. Then he has Marner as a completely devoted man, getting up there in years but ever steadfast and loving to young Eppi, who grows into a fine young woman.
Sure things get rather precious a time or two: The relationship with Eppi, the woman she grows to be is rather hard to fathom as Marner could never bring himself to attempt any form of discipline whatsoever; that headstrong child and her mischief making somehow do not taint her in any way. She’s lovely when grown, lovable and doting, and a wee bit naive even tho’ she’s grown up amongst a coarse lot (And here is where I offer my only >ding< to Sachs: His choice for Eppi’s voice makes her sound a trifle vapid… so a tiny boo for that…).
Good old-fashioned storytelling, and even tho’ Eliot/Evans commits the Writing Cardinal Sin of Telling Telling Telling, at least she Shows through her writing as well. We do not need to be told that Marner knows that the gold he’d once worshipped has been cast off and is now found in the beautiful golden glory of a child. We get it through his many and varied acts of adoration and service. No, we don’t need that stated in several sentences as well.
All in all? I’m happy to have listened to this, happy to have chosen Andrew Sachs. Sooo happy to have left Flannery O’Connor for a later date, tho’ I am indeed truly fond of her.
And, hey, Ms. Lashus: I finally learned to think for m’self! …sorta…
Free listening for Audible Members.
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