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George Eliot
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The Lifted Veil (Xist Classics) Kindle Edition

by George Eliot (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.4 out of 5 stars 363 ratings
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot is a gothic novella in the vein of other Victorian horror stories like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. In The Lifted Veil, the unreliable narrator, Latimer, believes that he is cursed with an otherworldly ability to see into the future and the thoughts of other people. This leads to tragedy as his obcession with his brother's fiancee.
This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This ebook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it.

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    • Customer reviews:
      3.4 out of 5 stars 363 ratings

    About the author

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    George Eliot

    George Eliot

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    Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 - 22 December 1880; alternatively "Mary Anne" or "Marian"), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871-72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

    She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot's life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. She also wished to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as an editor and critic. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years.

    Her 1872 work Middlemarch has been described by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language.

    Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Swiss artist Alexandre-Louis-François d'Albert-Durade (1804-86) [Public Domain], via English Wikipedia.

    Customer reviews

    3.4 out of 5 stars
    363 global ratings

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    Top reviews from United Kingdom

    • V. G. Harwood
      5.0 out of 5 stars A Short Masterpiece
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2013
      Verified Purchase
      Another fantastic free classic from the public domain library and available for download on Kindle. I always have to work up to read George Eliot, I always think it's going to be hard-going and I don't know why I always approach her work in this way because I always absolutely love everything of hers I have read. This is no exception. It's only 75 pages long but I soon found myself lost in the story of Latimer, a man who from the unenviable position of knowing he is shortly to die, relates his life history. He has, it seems, a "gift" of being able to determine the future and the thoughts of those around him. From his early childhood and loss of his mother, to his father who doesn't quite understand or approve of him, his relationship with his boisterous elder brother who pities him for his failings, his first experiences of friendship and love and his subsequent marriage to Bertha. It is only a novella, but in that time the reader is rewarded with an intense picture of the man and the many disappointments that form his life. I've never read a bad George Eliot story and this is another masterpiece which can be yours utterly free - can't go wrong!
      10 people found this helpful
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    • Lottie Lupin
      4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read.
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 February 2015
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      Wonderfully written and an intriguing plot and characters but I felt that I would have preferred it to be developed a bit more. It felt like a first draft; as if George Eliot was experimenting with the supernatural genre during the Victorian Gothic resurgence. I would have liked to read a full length novel by her about clairvoyance and the woken dead as it suited her style.
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    • Mrs. D. J. Smith
      3.0 out of 5 stars Unusual Novella
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2011
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      The Lifted Veil is a novella or short story by George Eliot. The story is told by Latimer, who has just been told he has not much longer to live, and looks back on the events of his earlier life. What makes this story slightly unusual, at least taking into acount the time it was written, is that Latimer seems to suffer from some sort of illness and this may or may not be related to his ability to read the emotions and/or thoughts of other people. This ability is the lifted veil of the title. It's not a cheery, happy-ending feel-good story, but it is interesting.
      8 people found this helpful
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    • JazzMuffin
      2.0 out of 5 stars .
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2019
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      Not for me I’m afraid. While the ending was a clever twist, the style is does not really appeal to my tastes
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    • Kindle Customer
      3.0 out of 5 stars The lifted veil
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2020
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      An interesting book, the story plot is different from other books written at this time period. It is a well written book.
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    • LouiseLouise
      4.0 out of 5 stars Good story about clairvoyance
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2018
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      Good story with a strong supernatural element focusing on clairvoyance, it can be a bit slow going at times and as with a few novels from that era seems to give a lot of unnecessary detail, but if you stay with it it's a very satisfying read.
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    • Mar Nezzo
      5.0 out of 5 stars .
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2013
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      Who wouldn't be delighted to find the public domain list of FREE classic literature. This is fantastic. All the titles I've always wanted to read and for free - this is my kind of kindle heaven. I love the way they arrive on your kindle, they're so quick, it's like magic. Thank you public domain!
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    • Amazon Customer
      3.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable
      Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2014
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      A classic. Enjoyable short read with Victorian nostalgia. If you are a fan of Elliott you will not be disappointed.
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    Top reviews from other countries

    • Israel Drazin
      5.0 out of 5 stars A Gothic parable about love
      Reviewed in the United States on 3 April 2011
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      This short book, which amazon gives free to kindle owners, was composed by George Elliot (1819-1880). A shy rich man with a weak, sickly, poetical nature expects to die very soon from a heart condition in 1850. He doesn't expect any of his three servants to respond to his bell for help because he understand people and knows that they are involved in their own affairs. He uses these moments alone to tell his life story.

      He realized that he had unique abilities when he was young. He had visions of the future, what people will do and say, long before they do or say it. He also had the gift of insight. He could understand people's character and pierce the veil of their faces and false conduct. Yet, he couldn't understand Bertha for many years.

      Bertha was a thin and beautiful girl, a year older than he, with whom he fell in love. She could be charming. Yet, she was self-centered, negative, heartless, satirical, sarcastic, opinionated, vain, and loved power, but he saw none of this. He was nineteen and she twenty. She was engaged to his brother who was twenty-six. She admitted to him that she didn't love his brother. But he was in ecstasy with her and saw no faults. He even ignored a vision that he was married to her and she mistreated him. His brother died in an accident and he married Bertha without knowing if she loved him, although she said she did.

      After some years of marriage, when his father died, he was suddenly able to see what his wife Bertha truly was, that she despised him. Then life became unbearable, as he foresaw in his vision.

      He noticed a strange relationship between Bertha and her servant. Then, when the servant was dying, his friend, a doctor, told him that the servant would expire that night and asked for permission from him to insert blood into her artery after she died to see what happens. She died, the blood was inserted, she came back to life, turned to Bertha, who just entered the room, and yelled at her, "You mean to poison your husband...the poison is in the black cabinet...I got it for you." Then she died again, and he separated from Bertha after dividing his property with her, equally.

      Reflecting back at the servant's resurrection, he asks, "Is this what it is to live again...to wake up with our unsatiated thirst upon us, with our unuttered curses rising to our lips, with our muscles ready to act out their half committed sins?"

      Can this story be read as a parable, a commentary on marriage, that men are unable to unveil the character of their wives' feelings, even though they can understand other people, that love blinds?
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    • Veronica
      5.0 out of 5 stars Nice edition
      Reviewed in Spain on 15 November 2019
      Verified Purchase
      Added it to my collection. Loved The Lifted Veil.
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    • K RANGA RAJYAM
      3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
      Reviewed in India on 16 April 2016
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      It was a good story!
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    • Frank Donnelly
      4.0 out of 5 stars An Intersting, Early Science Fiction Novella Featuring An "Unreliable Narrator"
      Reviewed in the United States on 21 February 2019
      Verified Purchase
      First A Disclaimer, George Eliot is my favorite author.

      "The Lifted Veil" is an early science fiction novella that is somewhat more basic than modern science fiction. I like it very much, but am biased as indicated above. I have read this novella three times now over the course of several years. I believe that many modern science fiction readers will find this novella somewhat dated. Having read all of George Eliot's fiction multiple times, I have to say that this is not representative of her very best fiction. George Eliot can be incredibly insightful, elegant, and poignant. This fine work does not quite rise to that level. In case that it matters I think her most accessible and readable short traditional novel is "Silas Marner".

      "The Lifted Veil" is written in first person and who is described in terms of literary commentary as an "unreliable narrator". My personal favorite such novella from this period with an unreliable narrator is "Notes From The Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

      In addition to simply enjoying this novella standing on its own, there are parts of this novella that presage some parts of future very great novels. As an example, at one point there is a person who will not leave the bedside of a grievously ill person. The attending person is not being benevolent, but is trying to protect a secret. This theme will again reappear in "Middlemarch", the novel considered by many to be George Eliot's apotheosis. There is also some narrative about the streets of Prague and specifically some mention of an area occupied by individuals of the Jewish faith. This area is revisited in "Daniel Deronda", a novel that is largely about the Jewish faith. As a George Eliot devotee, I am as interested in these aspects of this novella as the story itself. Obviously not every reader will share this interest.

      In summary, I completely enjoyed this reread of "The Lifted Veil". The novella represents early science fiction and is somewhat dated as far as science fiction goes. However for a fan and student of George Eliot the novella provides a very good and interesting reading experience. Thank You....
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    • Nancyhua
      3.0 out of 5 stars unexpected, horror-ish story
      Reviewed in the United States on 24 December 2010
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      I read some of Middlemarch and this novella is very different so I wouldn't recommend this as an accurate cross-section of Eliot's work. The Lifted Veil seems to be about being doomed to your fate even if you know the future. The protagonist does not even attempt to escape the pain he foretells for himself and then there's this weird part where they bring someone back from the dead to reveal an ugly plot. I didn't know exactly what to make of that except maybe it's an example of horror stories popular at the time? The relationships between people in this story are all very depressing. I think this story is not meant to be serious literature. If it was, then I hated it. But I think it wasn't, so it was an interesting, unusual, technically well written, short work where I wanted to see what was going to happen next. If you don't expect high art coming into this story then I think you'll be fine.
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