The Lifted Veil: Brother Jacob

This volume pairs two of Eliot's shorter fictions. The Lifted Veil is a strange, gothic tale of a sensitive man haunted by glimpses of the future and by the hidden thoughts of those around him. Brother Jacob is a lighter, satirical story about a young man with grand ambitions who leaves his family's home with stolen money, hoping to make his fortune abroad. Together they show a different side of Eliot, in which she experiments with the uncanny and with sharp, ironic comedy about vanity and self-deception.