The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob

George Eliot, the pen named used by Mary Anne Evans, wrote popular works that epitomized the settings and ideology of contemporary Victorian England. She was brought up in the Church of England, where she developed strong moral convictions that carried over into her fiction; she often presented stories of social outsiders and small-town persecution. When "Brother Jacob" was completed in 1864, it was published together with "The Lifted Veil" (1859) as a companion piece. "The Lifted Veil" is a dark fantasy about a young artist with clairvoyant abilities, and explores the science of the brain, mesmerism, phrenology, as well as themes of fate, and the mysteries of life and life after death. "Brother Jacob", a satirical modern fable, tells the story of a spiteful young man who is unsatisfied with his station in life. He struggles with an idiot brother, and a literal and symbolic conflict with sugar.