The Lifted Veil - BookWyrm

Paperback, 103 pages

English language

Published May 7, 2001 by Penguin.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-043517-7
OCLC Number:: 47231609

(6 reviews)

George Eliot's Gothic story, published the same year as her staunchly realist novel, Adam Bede, continues her preoccupation with human communication and sympathy through the figure of the telepathic narrator. Latimer, one of her least likeable characters, suffers tremendously under his heightened awareness of others' petty and selfish thoughts. Latimer chooses to tell the story of his abilities as a tale of disability, a kind of pathography about his gift. The vehemence of his disgust for human frailties suggests that Latimer's pain derives at least in part from his failure of empathy for others (except at his father's death)--that his discomfort with telepathic communication rests on his resistance to human connection in general. Thus, his uncanny hearing unmasks a kind of sympathetic deafness to others, and his progressive heart disease indexes the shriveling of his capacity for human love and friendship.

59 editions

Zelanator reviewed The lifted veil by George Eliot (Oxford world's classics)

Review of 'The lifted veil' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

My first George Eliot piece. Two short stories originally published in British magazines. Both of these essays express Eliot’s interest in nineteenth century pseudosciences (e.g. phrenology) and her ability to write eloquently about aspects of human psychology and human nature. The Lifted Veil describes a man’s obsession with his brother’s betrothed and renders numerous insights about narcissism, delusion, and desire. Brother Jacob is satire about the ability (or lack thereof) for people to posit multiple truths about their identity to deceive others.