First published in 1859, George Eliot's short novella The Lifted Veil tells the story of a man who is overcome by haunting visions of the future. An unhappy man, he is overwhelmed by those visions and a tremendous amount of thoughts in his head, the man still tries to radically change his destiny. Some have said that the book is likely at least partly autobiographical. Like Eliot, the main character of the book is a sensitive individual who is rendered uneasy by public criticism -- especially because she wrote under a pseudonym.
To this day, The Lifted Veil isn't as widely known as some of Eliot’s other works (like The Mill on the Floss). The book also inspired some of the best Victorian horror fiction, including Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bram Stoker's Dracula. One reviewer called the book a "tour de force captured in a mere 75 pages." While other reviewers liked the book, some did not. Those that did not like the book said that they didn't like it because it wasn't very much like some of Eliot's other work and said that the book was "too dark" and felt as if it was written in a fever dream.
