Daniel Deronda

by George Eliot
Category: "Fiction - General"
Pages:710
Year of Publication:1876
Date Added:01/21/2021
Date Read:04/02/2024
Notes:Daniel Deronda, raised as a ward by an English nobleman, spots the beautiful Gwendolen Harleth gambling. Something about his look disconcerts her. She is used to being admired and getting her way in all things, and it disturbs her to have someone disapprove. Daniel goes boating on the river and spots Mirah Lapidoth, a beautiful Jewish girl, about to commit suicide. Daniel stops her and takes her to the home of Mrs. Meyrick, who cares for her. Mirah had been ripped away from her mother and brother when a young girl and taken to the Continent by her father who wanted to make a great singer out of her. When her voice turned out not to be strong enough, the father attempted to sell her in marriage to a man Mirah despised. She ran away back to London to look for mother—in vain, which is when Daniel found her. He begins to look for her mother and brother and discovers the one is dead and the other dying. Mirah's brother Ezra is passionate about the idea of a homeland for Jews, and his passion eats at Daniel. Meanwhile, Gwendolen's family is defrauded of all their money. She wants to take care of her mother but doesn't want to work, so she agrees to marry Henleigh Grandcourt, thinking that the marriage will allow her freedom to do as she wished. But Grandcourt is a bore who dislikes everything and everybody, and a control freak who insists that his wife life as he wants her to—which includes forsaking her family. When Gwendolen realizes that state she's in, she turns to Daniel for advice, since he's the only one she can trust to be truthful. He encourages her to find good in her situation, but Grandcourt won't allow it and becomes very jealous of Daniel. Then Daniel's long-lost mother contacts him and asks him to go to Italy to meet her. She informs him that he is Jewish, which makes him happy because of his passion for Ezra's vision. Grandcourt insists that Gwendolyn goes yachting with him to keep her away from Daniel. He conveniently falls off the boat and drowns right off the port where Daniel met his mother. Daniel takes care of her until her family can arrive from England. Being Jewish puts him in a position to marry Mirah with whom he has fallen in love . Gwendolen, who supposed that Daniel would always be near to keep her sane, gets hysterical when she finds out, but determines to live her life in such a way as to have been better for knowing Daniel.
My Rating: 5

Reviews for Daniel Deronda

Review - Daniel Deronda

Long, ponderous, filled with entire paragraphs on feelings and passions that were nearly impossible to understand without reading them very slowly—which the story never gave me a reason to do. Daniel was too perfect to sympathize with, as was Mirah. Gwendolen was an interesting character, but always felt like a tangent to me. Eliot's obvious sympathy for the Jews while maintaining a certain amount of prejudice against them was awkward, and it was impossible to read the book without reflecting on actual historical events that have taken place between its setting in the 1860s and now.

Reviewed by Roger on 2024-04-02 13:15:16

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