This tale departs from Eliot's usual technique. Latimer's first-person narrative works with causality and chronology, with the narrative ending where it begins.[1]
It is Eliot's only venture into what would later be called science fiction.[8] The story was influenced by the fields of physiology, phrenology, and mesmerism, as well as scientists such as William Gregory, who studied animal magnetism, and Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, who performed transfusion experiments.[1] Some academics believe the focus on clairvoyance was reflective of George Eliot's anxiety that her pseudonym had or would be found out.[9][2]
