The Lifted Veil
by George Eliot
The story of a man who is incapacitated by visions of the future and the cacophony of overheard-of thoughts, and yet unable to help undermine his brilliant image of fate, is easy to read as the autobiographically revealing of "The Removed Veil" – about Eliot's public sensibility and his realization that his days, hidden behind a pseudonym, are doomed to a tragic discovery (as happened shortly after the publication of this short story). But it's easier to read the story as a fascinating and true precursor to a whimsical new form, as well as a gripping masterpiece of early suspense. Published the same year as his first novel, Adam Bede, this unnoticed work illustrates the gifts that George Eliot would become famous for – strict realism, psychological insight, and idealistic moralism. However, it is unique from all his other works because it represents the only time he used a first-person narrator, and this is the only time he wrote about the supernatural.
