Description
The Lifted Veil (1859) is a dark fantasy woven from contemporary scientific interest in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology, and experiments in revivification. Narrated by an egocentric, morbid young clairvoyant whose fascination for Bertha Grant lies partly in her obliquity, the story is an exploration of fiction's ability to offer insight into the self. The Lifted Veil is now justly one of the most widely read and critically discussed of Eliot's works.Published as a companion piece to The Lifted Veil, Brother Jacob is by contrast a satirical modern fable and a more light-hearted examination of the relationship between art and lying. Both stories reveal Eliot's deep engagement with the question of whether there are 'necessary truths' independent of our perception of them, and the boundaries of art and the self. Helen Small's introduction casts new light on works which fully deserve to be read alongside Eliot's novels.
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First published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1859, "The Lifted Veil" is now one of George Eliot's most widely read and critically discussed short stories. A dark fantasy drawing on contemporary scientific interest in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology, and experiments in revification, it is Eliot's anatomy of her own moral philosophy. Narrated by an egocentric, morbid young clairvoyant man, the story also explores fiction's ability to offer insight into the self, as well as being a remarkable portrait of an artist whose visionary powers merely blight his life. Published as a companion piece to "The Lifted Veil," "Brother Jacob" is by contrast Eliot's literary homage to Thackeray, a satirical modern fable that draws telling parallels between eating and reading. With an illuminating introduction by Helen Small, this Oxford World's Classics edition makes newly available two fascinating short stories which fully deserve to be read alongside Eliot's novels.
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