Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is the third novel by George Eliot, published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a linen weaver, it is notable for its strong realism and its sophisticated treatment of a variety of issues ranging from religion to industrialisation to community. A weaver, Silas Marner, is found guilty of a theft he did not commit, rejected by his intended, and robbed of his possessions, and so lives as a recluse until, one winter's night, a child arrives on his doorstep.