The Lifted Veil, and Brother Jacob

The Lifted Veil was first published in Blackwood`s Magazine in 1859. A dark fantasy woven from contemporary scientific interest in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology and experiments in revification it is Eliot`s anatomy of her own moral philsophy - the ideal of imaginative sympathy or the ability to see into others` minds and emotions. Narrated by an egoccentric, morbid young clairvoyant man whose fascination for Bertha Grant lies partly in her obliquity, the story also explores fiction`s ability to offer insight into the self, as well as being a remarkable portrait of a misdeveloped artist whose visionary powers merely blight his life. The Lifted Veil is now one of the most widely read and critically discussed of Eliot`s works.

Published as a companion piece to The Lifted Veil, Brother Jacob is by contrast Eliot`s literary homage to Thackeray, a satirical modern fable that draws telling parallels between eating and reading. Yet both stories reveal Eliot`s deep engagement with the question of whether there are `necessary truths` independent of our perception of them and the boundaries of art and the self. Helen Small`s introduction casts new light on works which fully deserve to be read alongside Eliot`s novels.