THE LIFTED VEIL: AND BROTHER JACOB

Two novellas whose treatment of moral weakness provides a dark counterpoint to the warm humanism of Eliot’s novels. The Lifted Veil is the story of Latimer, a man who has the power of prevision and the ability to read the minds of others. His brother’s fiancée, Bertha, is the one person whose mind remains closed to him. When his brother dies and they marry, he is suddenly able to see her murderous intentions. The protagonist of Brother Jacob is David Faux, a man driven by self-interest and greed to create a false life for himself as a confectioner in Jamaica. Jacob, his idiot brother, proves to be his nemesis.