“Silas Marner” is almost wonderful. It’s a character study, no less of the title character than of the town where he lives, which is why the subtitle, “The Weaver of Raveloe,” is particularly apropos. Unfortunately, this is also, ultimately, the book’s flaw: as a character study, the depth of the characters involved becomes of crucial importance; and while several are in fact vividly and broadly drawn, one key character is never more than one-dimensional. And since her decision determines the outcome of the story, and we never doubt what decision she’ll make, the book loses much--but not all--of its power in the final pages. It’s an old tenet of dramatic writing: whatever the situation is, make it as bad as possible before its final resolution; in this, Eliot fails. I still enjoyed the ending, it still had emotional impact, but I felt it could have been much stronger if Eliot had written a few extra chapters and not made the resolution so simple. I won’t get into a recapitulation of the setup or the plot, that’s been done by plenty of others. But I do want to take a moment to note that most of the book is delightful, the village really comes to life, and Marner himself is a wonderful character whose emotional journey encompasses some really high highs and one particularly low low. But the young squire, and the townsfolk, are just as vividly drawn--when Eliot seems to go off on a chapter-long digression into talk at the pub before Marner arrives with his complaint, I didn’t mind a bit because it made the town feel so very real, thus giving a particularly compelling context to everything else that was about to happen. So I do recommend the book, albeit with reservations—it’s short, it moves very quickly, and it does have some emotional heft at the end. Could have been more, but that doesn’t undermine the riches that are already present.