The Lifted Veil (novella)
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{short description|1859 horror novella by George Eliot}}
{{infobox novella |
| name = The Lifted Veil
| image =
| caption =
| author = George Eliot
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| genre = Horror fiction
| publisher = Blackwood's Magazine
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pub_date = July 1859
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
The Lifted Veil is a novella by George Eliot, first published anonymously in Blackwood's Magazine in 1859. {{cite web|url=https://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/11943|title=The Lifted Veil|date=2002-03-24|publisher=NYU Langone Health|last=Kennedy|first=Meegan|access-date=2022-04-23}}{{cite journal|last=Bull|first=Malcolm|date=1998|title=Mastery and slavery in 'The Lifted Veil.' (George Eliot)|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A21112578/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=a23dfe69|journal=Essays in Criticism|volume=48|issue=3|pages=244|doi=10.1093/eic/48.3.244 |access-date=2022-04-23|url-access=subscription}} It was republished in 1879. Quite unlike the realistic fiction for which Eliot is best known, The Lifted Veil explores themes of extrasensory perception, possible life after death, and the power of fate. {{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Joy|date=2007|title=Print, Image, and the Cycle of Materiality in George Eliot's The Lifted Veil|url=https://www.ncgsjournal.com/issue32/johnson.html|journal=Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies|volume=3 |issue=2|access-date=2022-04-23}}{{cite web|url=https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/engl-145-fall2016/2016/10/26/what-is-the-lifted-veil/|title=What is the "Lifted Veil"?|last=Marcinkowski|first=Emilie|date=2016-10-26|publisher=Georgetown University Blog|access-date=2022-04-23}}{{cite journal|last=McGlynn|first=David|title=Transfusing the Secret in George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" |date=2007|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42827831|journal=George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies|number=52/53|pages=60–75 |jstor=42827831 |access-date=2022-04-23}} The story is a significant part of the Victorian tradition of horror fiction, which includes such other examples as Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).{{cite journal|last=Helms|first=Whitney|date=2007|title=Print, Image, and the Cycle of Materiality in George Eliot's The Lifted Veil|url=https://doi.org/10.2307/georelioghlstud.62-63-1.0049|journal=George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies|issue=1|pages=49–65|doi=10.2307/georelioghlstud.62-63-1.0049 |s2cid=246615096 |access-date=2022-04-23}}{{cite web|url=https://www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/2019/04/13/the-lifted-veil-by-george-eliot/|title=The Lifted Veil by George Eliot|date=2019-04-13|publisher=mewsings|last=Ewing|first=Murray|access-date=2022-04-23}}
Plot summary
The unreliable narrator, Latimer, believes that he is cursed with an otherworldly ability to see into the future and the thoughts of other people. His unwanted "gift" seems to stem from a severe childhood illness he suffered while attending school in Geneva. Latimer is convinced of the existence of this power, and his two initial predictions do come true in the way in which he has envisioned them: a peculiar "patch of rainbow light on the pavement" and a few words of dialogue appear to him exactly as expected. Latimer is revolted by much of what he discerns about others' motivations.
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, but the marriage disintegrates as he recognizes Bertha's manipulative and untrustworthy nature. Latimer's friend, scientist Charles Meunier, performs a blood transfusion from himself to Bertha's recently deceased maid. 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.
Criticism and reception
Blackwood's hesitated to publish The Lifted Veil due to its uncomfortable and sometimes horrifying scenes - notably the blood transfusion at the end of the story. Blackwood liked the story but knew it might not be successful in his magazine, while his brother thought it was disturbed and urged him not to publish it.
Literary significance
This tale departs from Eliot's usual technique. Latimer's first-person narrative works with causality and chronology, with the narrative ending where it begins.
It is Eliot's only venture into what would later be called science fiction.{{cite web|url=https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/book-description/the-lifted-veil-1859-by-george-eliot/|title=The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (1859)|last=Jasmine|first=Taylor|date=2018-01-06|publisher=Literary Ladies Guide|access-date=2022-04-23}} The story was influenced by the fields of physiology, phrenology, and mesmerism, as well as scientists such as William Gregory, who studied animal magnetism, and Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, who performed transfusion experiments. Some academics believe the focus on clairvoyance was reflective of George Eliot's anxiety that her pseudonym had been or would be found out.{{cite journal|last=Fulmer|first=Constance M.|date=2019|title=George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil" and "Brother Jacob" as Expressions of Her Personal Anxieties|url=https://doi.org/10.1353/vct.2019.0013|journal=Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature|volume=136 |number=136|pages=194–205|doi=10.1353/vct.2019.0013 |s2cid=214473671 |access-date=2022-04-23}}
Adaptations in other media
In 1948 the story was adapted for an episode of the syndicated radio program The Weird Circle.{{cite web|url=https://tangentonline.com/oldtimeradio/weird-circle-qthe-lifted-veilq/|title=Weird Circle — "The Lifted Veil"|last=Truesdale|first=Dave|date=2016-12-17|publisher=Tangent|access-date=2022-04-23}} A two-part radio adaptation by Jonathan Holloway with Toby Stephens as Latimer was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1997 and again on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2025.{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Lifted Veil by George Eliot |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028kx2 |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
In 2002 the story was adapted for the stage for solo actor by Tim Heath. The adaptation was commissioned by Joseph Millson and was performed by him between 2002 and 2006.{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330279957|title=Review of The Lifted Veil|last=Heath|first=Tim|date=2003-01-31|access-date=2022-05-04}}{{cite web|url=https://www.josephmillson.com/content/lifted-veil|title=The Lifted Veil|last=Millson|first=Joseph|date=2019-12-31|access-date=2022-05-04}}
External links
- [https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/593 The Lifted Veil] free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the [https://georgeeliotarchive.org George Eliot Archive]
{{Wikisource}}
- [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/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]
- {{librivox book | title=The Lifted Veil | author=George ELIOT}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{George Eliot works}}
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