Ch. 1
The book "Silas Marner" opens in the English countryside where it was common to sometimes come across weavers, who were pale, thin men who looked like "the remnants of a disinherited race". The people viewed all types of skill and cleverness as suspicious. So, the weavers developed eccentric habits that resulted from loneliness. Silas Marner, a linen-weaver lived in a stone cottage in the village of Raveloe. The boys of the village would go and look through his window. Silas would usually scare them away by glaring at them.. The boys' parents said that Silas had the ability to cure rheumatism by the power of the devil. In the fifteen years Silas had lived in Raveloe, he had not invited any guests into his home, or made any effort to befriend other villagers. One of the townspeople swears he once saw Silas in a sort of fit, standing with his limbs stiff and his eyes "set like a dead man's."
Godfrey
From "Baptizing in the Jordan" by Silas X. Floyd (...
English: First edition title page to Silas Marner ...Mr. Macey, the parish clerk, suggested that Silas's soul was leaving his body to go with the devil. Even with all these rumors, Silas was never bothered because the townspeople feared him, and he was the only weaver in the village. Before Silas came to Raveloe he lived in a town to the north, where he was thought of as a young man "of exemplary life and ardent faith." This town was filled with religious people who met in a place called Lantern Yard. During one prayer meeting Silas became unconscious for more than an hour. But, Silas's best friend at the time, William Dane suggested that Silas's fit might have been from the devil rather than from God. Troubled by this suggestion, Silas asked his fiancée, a young servant named Sarah, if she wished to...