Fate is a black rider

George Eliot, alongside Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, is one of the most widely read and acclaimed English authors of her time. She proves this not only in her extensive novels but also in her short stories, two of which you can now read in a dynamic, passionate translation by Kristýna Julinová.

The story The Lifted Veil is narrated by a man at the end of his days, who was cursed with the unfortunate gift of reading others' thoughts and foreseeing the future, and we can take pleasure in the fact that part of it is set in the magical city of Prague. In it, love mixes with hatred, hope with disappointment, and moments of relief with the narrator's futile attempts to shake off his unenviable ability… And towering above it all is his beloved wife, a beautiful, yet also very enigmatic and dark figure.

In the short story Brother Jacob, we meet the cunning David Faux and his intellectually challenged, yet in his own way sharp, brother Jacob, who catches David in a misdeed and, like a ruthless Nemesis, reappears just as David returns from the West Indies and climbs the social ladder under a fabricated identity.

George Eliot captivates with her Austen-like character portrayals, masterful descriptions of settings, unexpected plot twists, and, not least, her sense of humour. Even after a century and a half, her short stories have lost none of their charm and confirm her rightful place among the greatest writers of the 19th century.