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| Daniel Deronda (Oxford World's Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: George Eliot
Creator: Graham Handley
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £1.55
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New (34) from £2.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 295989
Media: Paperback
Edition: New e.
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0192834819
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780192834812
ASIN: 0192834819
Publication Date: May 21, 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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 "Visions are the creators and feeders of the world. I see. I measure the world as it is, which the vision will create anew." September 17, 2008
In what may be her most exciting and original novel, George Eliot weaves two completely different plots, one of which is a uniquely sympathetic and fully developed story with Jewish protagonists. Presenting no Jewish stereotypes, as we see in Dickens (in Oliver Twist and other novels) and even Trollope (with The Way We Live Now (Barnes & Noble Classics)), she depicts characters who have, in one case, tried to avoid their heritage and in another have been drawn irrevocably to a religion and culture with which they have had no previous contact.
Daniel Deronda, a young man who has been brought up as an English gentleman by Sir Hugo Mallinger, has never known his real parents, secretly fearing that he is illegitimate. As time passes, he longs to understand the circumstances of his birth, especially after Sir Hugo marries and produces heirs of his own. Beautiful Gwendolen Harleth, selfish and manipulative, is romantically attracted to Daniel, but a sudden change in her family's financial status leads her into a precipitous but financially advantageous marriage to the arrogant Henleigh Grandcourt. Meanwhile, Daniel saves a young woman from drowning herself, a singer named Mirah Lapidoth who is in despair. Mirah, a Jew, had been stolen from her family by her father, whom she suspects planned to sell her into white slavery, and she desperately misses her mother and brother, whom she can no longer find. As she progresses with her singing career, she never forgets her heritage, of which she is inordinately proud.
As Eliot develops the various social settings of this fascinating novel, written in 1876, a full picture of British society evolves. To protect Mirah from her father and her own despair, Daniel places her in the home of friends and resolves to try to find her family. When Daniel discovers her brother Mordecai, a Jewish mystic and seer, Mordecai is convinced, against all odds, that Daniel is Jewish--and is the person who will carry his visions for a Jewish nation to fruition. As the novel develops further, Eliot explores Jewish mysticism, religious traditions, and cultural heritage, even as she also uses the shallow, aristocratic life of Gwendolen Harleth Grandcourt as a contrast to that of Mirah.
The novel is unique in its favorable and lengthy depiction of Judaism and in its illustration of Judaism's cultural superiority to superficial, aristocratic British life. Mirah and her family take center stage in terms of sympathy, despite the fact the Gwendolen, who in other novels might have been the heroine, suffers terribly in her miserable marriage to Grandcourt. Daring to do something completely different with this complex novel, which was her last, Eliot's vision and seriousness of purpose here created enormous controversy and presaged a new direction for the novel. n Mary Whipple
Middlemarch (Wordsworth Classics)
The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)
Adam Bede (Wordsworth Classics)
George Eliot: The Last Victorian
Hugely underrated and surprisingly modern September 21, 2006
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Although academically Middlemarch is always regarded as Eliot's masterpiece, I've always thought this novel deserves the title. Unlike another reviewer here I don't think the characters are either shallow or 2-dimensional, and it's important that Gwendolen starts off as being a conventional spoilt beauty because that makes her growth and change all the more compelling and significant.
As a woman writing in 19th century England, Eliot bravely highlights the impacts of poverty and the implications for women who are forced to prostitute themselves effectively in the marriage market, since a career is out of the question. This is the dark underside of Jane Austen and an important antidote to that sunny view of male/female relationships and the economic reality behind them.
The other brave element in this book is the theme of Jewishness which was glossed over in most of the literature of this period. It is the clash and interraction of the 2 related prejudices of gender and race/religion that give this book its resonance and importance in my view and its relevance to today.
 Forced but enjoyable reading August 10, 2004
7 out of 20 found this review helpful
Going into my second year of university I can not say seeing another George Eliot novel on my reading list filled me happiness. In first year having to read 'Middlemarch' took up a good third of my time. Well, what do you expect with 86 chapters? Believe it or not seeing 'Daniel Deronda' had only 70 was actually a relief. However time-consuming (three weeks reading everyday) a reader can always expect an intricate and mostly enthralling story. This story though more focused and less sprawling than 'Middlemarch' this story leaves you feeling more confused and less satisfied than said other work.
The relationships are fascinating and keeps the reader (or student) guessing until the very end however you do not really care. Yes the title character is on certain levels endearing but he is nowhere near as charming as little Jacob who is present in the novel for too short a time. Gwendolen Harleth comes across as a spoilt little mummy's girl who deserves the end she gets. However her legacy is more daring and tragic than anyone could expect.
However it is the theme of Judaism that kept me interested. The prejudice and discovery associated with it provided the depth to quite shallow characters, especially Daniel. We see he is tortured because he feels there is something missing in his life and he discovers it is his faith. As has been said Jacob and the rest of the Cohen family are the richest and most enjoyable sections of the novel. You feel there is something missing when they are not mentioned, they are a tender family that makes the fact you have 45 more chapters to go bearable!
A spellbinding book that has remained in my mind ever since May 16, 2003
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Within reading the first few chapters, Daniel Deronda became my most beloved and favourite of books. I was reading my first Eliot novel, Middlemarch when I saw the advertisements on BBC one for their serial of Daniel Deronda, and knowing little of Eliots other work I watched it with little knowledge of this story. But I was enchanted by the characters and their lives and couldn't wait to read the book. As soon as I had started I wished I hadn't seen the programme first and knew how the story ended, however there was so much more to learn about the characters whilst reading the book that I was consoled. Eliot is a master storyteller and is capable of completely emmersing her readers into her world. I have read of adults finding Eliot difficult to take in, but I was fifteeen when I first read Daniel Deronda and Middlemarch and once I got used to her complex language and analogies I couldn't put it down. I found myself waking up early in the morning just to read and rushing home from school to pick up from that morning. I would recommend Daniel Deronda to anybody that loves romance and drama - Daniel Deronda is packed full of both. Gwendolen is such a tragic heroine, Daniel and Mirah are so impossible not to fall in love with and Grandcourt such a wonderful character to completely detest that I'm sure many other readers will agree that Daniel Deronda is a classic work of genius.
A satisfying read May 8, 2003
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
'Daniel Deronda' is a very satisfying novel - at over 800 pages, it is verging on epic proportions, and its meandering style is at times at odds with a page turning cranking up of the plot - but nevertheless, I seem to have gotten through it surprisingly quickly! Having literally caught a glimpse of the recent TV version, I was intrigued by one line: 'it shall be better with me for knowing you' - and such simple but profound reflections characterise Eliot's style. It is an intensely psychological novel, and Eliot's study of her emotionally self centered heroine, Gwendolen Harleth, as she evolves, through experience, into an admirable woman is really remarkable. It is the kind of novel where the insight shown in portraying the characters makes you feel like you are truly learning something about yourself and others, and to me that is what makes a novel great. Eliot is also concerned with questions of religious and national identity, and the tension between separateness and togetherness is still resonant today. 'Daniel Deronda' is probably less famous than Eliot's other novels 'The Mill on the Floss' and 'Middlemarch', and possibly less finished, but nevertheless highly successful on its own terms. Full of insight - give it a try!
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