The Lifted Veil

By: George Eliot

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

Length: 1 hr and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

George Eliot's The Lifted Veil was first published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1859 and has now become one of the author's most widely read and critically discussed stories. Told from the point of view of a young, egocentric, and morbid clairvoyant man, Latimer, it is a dark fantasy portrait of an artist whose visionary powers merely blight his life. The story reflected the scientific interest of the time in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology, and experiments in revivification. It also is a reflection of the author's moral philosophy.

The Lifted Veil is a significant part of the Victorian tradition of horror fiction, along with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Public Domain (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Depressing and Sad Tale

I'm a fan of George Eliot, my favorite being Silas Marner. But this one left me just . . . bewildered and sad. I kept waiting for Latimer to be embraced and loved by SOMEONE. But it didn't happen. This one is altogether one of the loneliest, bewildering tales I've heard, and I don't feel better having listened to it.

Bertha don't you come around here anymore

George Eliot was the pseudonym of a woman called Mary Anne Evans. She wrote under a male pen name so as to escape from stereotypes of women's writing which at the time (mid 19th century) was still mostly Jane Austin style lighthearted romances. The Lifted Veil is one of Eliot's lesser known works which tells the story of a young man called Latimer who becomes obsessed with Bertha, his brother's finance. So far, so Jane Austin style lighthearted romance, I hear you say, and you would be correct, until that it you hear of the twist in the plot structure that means that Latimer is able to glimpse into the future. His premonitions are deeply disturbing and the motto of this story may well be "be careful what you wish for". Some consider The Lifted Veil to be an early example of science fiction but those who approach this book expecting it to be comparable with Mary Shelley or Bram Stoker will be disappointed. It is, however, well done and makes for an interesting but short listen.

Not keen on the narrator's voice

I struggled and gave up as I found the narrator's intonation too annoying. Maybe it's just me?

Performance ruins book.

The performance is distanced and monotonous. Makes it very difficult to engage with the character.

An introduction to George Eliot

Found this hard going, to be honest. The narration certainly didn’t help, as the audiobook had the matter-of-fact feel of a car maintenance video on changing spark plugs. I got to the end, but only as a result of a combination of dogged determination and a lengthy delay in gridlocked traffic. And it was only two hours.

Dreadful Narrator - Ruined the story.

what's going on with Clive Chafer.?
He saps all life out of the literature with a forced, bland monotonous pitched narration.
His tone is both condescending & sneering at the author and the listener.

Only when he voices a character doors he actually show any life.

The narration should be neutral but not a harsh robotic critical tone.
He is so distracting.

i will avoid this narrator like the plague.

Interesting & well written story but...

Totally let down by an abysmally bad performance.
You can tell the difference when someone is telling you a tale or just reading a book. This is just reading a book without thinking anyone is bothering to listen. Even worse, like one of this god awful college professors that think they can make a truly boring lecture, exciting. Too bad.