Gentle linen weaver Silas Marner is wrongly accused of a heinous theft and he exiles himself from the world-until he finds redemption and spiritual rebirth through his unselfish love for an abandoned child who mysteriously appears one day at his isolated cottage. Somber yet hopeful Eliot's realistic depiction of an irretrievable past tempered with the magical
elements of myth and fairy tale remains timeless in its understanding of human nature and is beloved by every generation.