The Lifted Veil by George Eliot - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By George Eliot

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Lifted Veil by George Eliot - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of George Eliot’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Eliot includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Lifted Veil by George Eliot - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Eliot’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788770088

George Eliot

George Eliot (1819–1880), born Mary Ann Evans, was an English writer best known for her poetry and novels. She grew up in a conservative environment where she received a Christian education. An avid reader, Eliot expanded her horizons on religion, science and free thinkers. Her earliest writings included an anonymous English translation of The Life of Jesus in 1846 before embracing a career as a fiction writer. Some of her most notable works include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss(1860) and Silas Marner.

Book preview

The Complete Works of

GEORGE ELIOT

VOLUME 9 OF 22

The Lifted Veil

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2014

Version 5

COPYRIGHT

‘The Lifted Veil’

George Eliot: Parts Edition (in 22 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 008 8

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

George Eliot: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 9 of the Delphi Classics edition of George Eliot in 22 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Lifted Veil from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of George Eliot, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of George Eliot or the Complete Works of George Eliot in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

GEORGE ELIOT

IN 22 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Adam Bede

2, The Mill on the Floss

3, Silas Marner

4, Romola

5, Felix Holt the Radical

6, Middlemarch

7, Daniel Deronda

The Shorter Fiction

8, Scenes of Clerical Life

9, The Lifted Veil

10, Brother Jacob

The Poetry

11, The Complete Poems

The Translations

12, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined by Dr. David Friedrich Strauss

13, The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach

The Non-Fiction

14, Three Months in Weimar

15, Impressions of Theophrastus Such

16, Miscellaneous Essays

The Criticism

17, The Criticism

The Biographies

18, George Eliot’s Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals

19, George Eliot by Mathilde Blind

20, The Life of George Eliot by John Morley

21, George Eliot by Sarah Knowles Bolton

22, George Eliot by Hattie Tyng Griswold

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The Lifted Veil

The Lifted Veil was first published in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1859 and is a piece of fiction distinct from Eliot’s other work as it does not rest within the realist tradition. The novella is a gothic and fantastical work, depicting a bleak view of humankind and a species with black, cold hearts full of self-interest. It is also unusual, in comparison with the author’s other works, because Eliot employs a first person narrator, which adds to the claustrophobic and eerie nature of the story. The tale includes elements of pseudo-science and a horrifying scene of reanimation of a dead character.

The plot centres on a man called Latimer, who has premonitions and is able to read the thoughts of those near to him. He begins by explaining that his death is close at hand and describes in detail how it will occur and the stages of his impending demise. The story then shifts back into his past as he recalls a gloomy, unhappy childhood saturated by his insecurities and miseries. However, as he moves into puberty he realises he is able to hear other people’s thoughts, with the one exception of his brother’s beautiful, but narcissistic fiancée, Bertha. He falls in love with her due to her mystery and sense of unknown, until one day he has a premonition of their future together and an appalling incident that will occur.

When Latimer hears the thoughts of others they are typically selfish, egotistical and cruel and any other competing sentiments or beliefs based on reason and decency are quickly overwhelmed by the negative, self-serving drives which dominant. Eliot suggests the bleak notion that humans delude themselves about reality and each other and that if one were to actually hear the thoughts of another person, it would make any type of relationship almost impossible. The author draws a clear distinction between our inner desires and illusions of what we want to be real and true, and then the actual reality; what exists.

How the short story originally appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

THE LIFTED VEIL

Give me no light, great Heaven, but such as turns

To energy of human fellowship;

No powers beyond the growing heritage

That makes completer manhood.

CHAPTER I

The time of my end approaches. I have lately been subject to attacks of angina pectoris; and in the ordinary course of things, my physician tells me, I may fairly hope that my life will not be protracted many months. Unless, then, I am cursed with an exceptional physical constitution, as I am cursed with an exceptional mental character, I shall not much longer groan under the wearisome burthen of this earthly existence. If it were to be otherwise — if I were to live on to the age most men desire and provide for — I should for once have known whether the miseries of delusive expectation can outweigh the miseries of true provision. For I