The Lifted Veil

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name = The Lifted Veil
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author = George Eliot
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
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genre = Novella
publisher = Blackwood's Magazine
release_date = July, 1859
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media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
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isbn = NA
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"The Lifted Veil" is a novella by George Eliot, first published in 1859. Quite unlike the realistic fiction for which Eliot is best known, "The Lifted Veil" explores themes of extrasensory perception, the essence of physical life, possible life after death, and the power of fate. The novella is a significant part of the Victorian tradition of horror fiction, which includes such other examples as Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818), Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886), and Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897).

Plot summary

The narrator, Latimer (no first name given), is gifted or cursed with an otherworldly ability to see into the future and the thoughts of other people. Tragically, Latimer is revolted by much of what he discerns about others' motivations. His unwanted "gift" seems to stem from a severe childhood illness he suffered while attending school in Geneva.

Latimer becomes fascinated with Bertha, his brother's cold and coquettish fiancée, because her mind and motives remain atypically closed to him. After his brother's death Latimer marries Bertha, only to see the marriage disintegrate as he begins to recognize Bertha's manipulative and untrustworthy nature. Latimer's friend, scientist Charles Meunier, performs a blood transfusion between himself and Bertha's just-dead maid in a memorable scene of gothic horror. For a few moments the maid comes back to life and accuses Bertha of a plot to poison Latimer. Bertha flees and Latimer soon dies as he had himself foretold at the start of the narrative.

Major themes

Latimer, the strangely gifted narrator, might seem completely unlike almost all of George Eliot's other characters in his unrealistic ability to discern the secrets of the future and of other people's minds. Still, he reflects Eliot's continual interest in the frequent failure of human sympathy and communication. His repulsion at the self-interested natures of other people may appear overdone and somewhat naive, and he has impressed some critics as one of Eliot's least likeable creations. Bertha is similar to some other Eliot creations, such as Rosamund Vincy in Middlemarch--both are beautiful, narcissistic women who hold a fascination for certain men, to the great regret of these men later.

The story demonstrates Eliot's interest in contemporary science and pseudoscience, including physiology, phrenology, mesmerism and clairvoyance. While today's readers might smile at the conceit of a simple blood transfusion bringing the dead back to life, Eliot manages this scene with impressive style and force. She handles Latimer's vision sequences with a similar drive and attention to detail.

Literary significance & criticism

This odd tale (by Eliot's normal standards) has fascinated some critics exactly because it departs so far from her usual hyper-realistic technique. Latimer's first-person narrative, a lone example in the Eliot canon, allows the novelist to play with causality and chronology in the story, with the narrative ending where it freakishly begins.

As Eliot's only venture into what would nowadays be called science fiction, the story might look rusty and even laughable in some of its supposedly scientific details. But the sharply drawn portrait of Latimer, gifted and cursed and at last hunted down by inescapable fate, gives the tale enduring appeal.

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2165 Text of "The Lifted Veil" (Oxford University Press edition, 1921)] at Project Gutenberg
* [http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=11943 Summary and criticism of "The Lifted Veil"]