George Eliot

The Lifted Veil Annotated George Eliot

The unreliable narrator, Latimer, believes that he's cursed Associate in Nursing transcendental ability to check into the future and the thoughts of different people. His unwanted "gift" seems to stem from a severe childhood illness he suffered while attending faculty in Geneva. Latimer is convinced of the existence of this power, and his 2 initial predictions do return true the means he has envisioned them: a peculiar "patch of rainbow light on the pavement" and a few words of dialogue appear to him exactly as expected. Latimer becomes fascinated with Bertha, his brother's cold and coquettish fiancée, because her mind and motives remain atypically closed to him. After his brother's death, Latimer marries Bertha, but the marriage disintegrates as he recognizes Bertha's manipulative and untrustworthy nature. Latimer's friend, scientist Charles Meunier, performs a blood transfusion from himself to Bertha's recently deceased maid. For a few moments the maid comes back to life and accuses Bertha of a plot to poison Latimer. Bertha flees and Latimer before long dies as he had himself predicted at the beginning of the narrative.