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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i was recommended this book by someone who told me i’d love it because gwendolyn was a lot like scarlett o’hara, a personal hero and, imo, the single best female character that has ever been written.
that person is now cut out of my life forever because how DARE they. gwen WISHES. gwen could NEVER. should they ever be in a room together, gwen would burst into flames before scarlett finished saying “fiddle-dee-dee.”
also rich old timey life was boring as hell, my god. in summary, gwen sucks and daniel’s a little bitch.
that person is now cut out of my life forever because how DARE they. gwen WISHES. gwen could NEVER. should they ever be in a room together, gwen would burst into flames before scarlett finished saying “fiddle-dee-dee.”
also rich old timey life was boring as hell, my god. in summary, gwen sucks and daniel’s a little bitch.
Once again, as with Middlemarch, Eliot's taken what could be two novels and combined them so that two protagonists (or the argument could be made more than that even) are all spinning in arcs around each other, tangentially touching and sometimes profoundly so but still on their own arcs. The novel begins with spoiled, self-centered, arrogant Gwendolyn Harleth, who everyone has pinned hopes on for making a brilliant marriage. She's mean to her mother and high and mighty to everyone else. She's got a bit of a gambling issue and is the 19th-c. equivalent of a Paris Hilton, with the difference being that Harleth returns from a gambling spree to find out her family is now broke. Having rejected the advances of the ridiculously named Henleigh Malinger Grandcourt, Gwendolyn returns home to harsh choices: she must either enter into service as a governess for a wealthy family (or choice she views as only slightly worse than death) or she must marry, and quickly. Going with the easy (and obvious) option, she quickly makes it clear to Grandcourt that she's had a change of heart. She makes this rapid decision, she claims, because she feels badly for her mother's poverty (yeah right). She also makes this decision despite knowing that Grandcourt has another family under the rose. This unacknowledged un-wife makes several appearances, like a phantom, and even writes Gwen a wicked, imprecatory letter on her wedding day, sending along some cursed diamonds just for good measure. This of course sends Gwen into fits of guilt, which are disingenuous histrionics at best.
Cut to the side story of Daniel Deronda, who is tangentially related by adoption to Grandcourt and had a glancing interaction with Gwen while she was gambling and pawning jewelry. His story is more boring, IMHO. He doesn't know who is parents are, but suspects Sir Hugo Malinger fathered him (he did not). He goes around rescuing people, essentially. First, he rescues Gwen by repurchasing her pawned necklace after she gambles herself into a hole. Then he literally rescues Mirah, the Jewess with whom he'll eventually fall in love, as she's attempting to commit suicide by drowning in the river. He then rescues Mirah's brother Ezra by entering into a relationship reminiscent of that between Ruth and Naomi in the Hebrew Bible. That, for me, was the most interesting part of Deronda's story. The passages where Deronda and Ezra are pledging themselves to each other sound very much like wedding vows, and the entire text ends with a quote from Ruth. So there would seem to be some deeper spelunking to be had there. Also, at first, Deronda and Mirah both don't know where their parents are. So there's an interesting subtext of abandoned and ill-used children here that might be worth investigating as well.
Predictably, Gwendolyn thinks she's fallen in love with Deronda, when really all she needs is to have her ego stroked and have someone tell her what to do with her life. The woman doesn't think for herself though she claims to repeatedly. Deronda, more reasonably, falls for "one of his own kind," Mirah, though he doesn't allow himself to admit his feelings until after a meeting with his long lost mother (a princess no less), who reveals that, yes, he is, indeed a Jew. To our 21st-century minds, the emphasis on whether he's a Jew or not might feel anachronistic, until we place it in context: pre-WWII, when anti-semitism was still rife. Gwendolyn's somewhat humorous, somewhat pathetic reaction to Deronda's revelation that he is Jewish demonstrates this: she tells him that she doesn't care about all of that, much in the way that some would say, "Oh, but I have black friends, so I CAN'T be racist." Uh huh. She's not a character that thinks very deeply about anything but herself. When she is released from her marital slavery to Grandcourt, it's a ridiculous toss away scene. I honestly put the book down and said, "Really, George Eliot, after 700 pages, THIS is what you come up with - he drowns? Come on." And of course, Gwen uses this as a reason to feel increasingly sorry for herself and try to lure Deronda in even more, but he's not biting.
Though it took me a month of picking this novel up and putting it down and picking it up again, interspersed with vacations and other shorter novels, to get through it, I stuck with it, and I feel it was worth it. While not one of my favorite Eliot novels, as her last complete novel, I felt it was important to read it. Overall, the relationships are odd and not tidy and uncomfortable and contrived. Still, Eliot knew her craft and the book is worth a read if you are a devotee.
Cut to the side story of Daniel Deronda, who is tangentially related by adoption to Grandcourt and had a glancing interaction with Gwen while she was gambling and pawning jewelry. His story is more boring, IMHO. He doesn't know who is parents are, but suspects Sir Hugo Malinger fathered him (he did not). He goes around rescuing people, essentially. First, he rescues Gwen by repurchasing her pawned necklace after she gambles herself into a hole. Then he literally rescues Mirah, the Jewess with whom he'll eventually fall in love, as she's attempting to commit suicide by drowning in the river. He then rescues Mirah's brother Ezra by entering into a relationship reminiscent of that between Ruth and Naomi in the Hebrew Bible. That, for me, was the most interesting part of Deronda's story. The passages where Deronda and Ezra are pledging themselves to each other sound very much like wedding vows, and the entire text ends with a quote from Ruth. So there would seem to be some deeper spelunking to be had there. Also, at first, Deronda and Mirah both don't know where their parents are. So there's an interesting subtext of abandoned and ill-used children here that might be worth investigating as well.
Predictably, Gwendolyn thinks she's fallen in love with Deronda, when really all she needs is to have her ego stroked and have someone tell her what to do with her life. The woman doesn't think for herself though she claims to repeatedly. Deronda, more reasonably, falls for "one of his own kind," Mirah, though he doesn't allow himself to admit his feelings until after a meeting with his long lost mother (a princess no less), who reveals that, yes, he is, indeed a Jew. To our 21st-century minds, the emphasis on whether he's a Jew or not might feel anachronistic, until we place it in context: pre-WWII, when anti-semitism was still rife. Gwendolyn's somewhat humorous, somewhat pathetic reaction to Deronda's revelation that he is Jewish demonstrates this: she tells him that she doesn't care about all of that, much in the way that some would say, "Oh, but I have black friends, so I CAN'T be racist." Uh huh. She's not a character that thinks very deeply about anything but herself. When she is released from her marital slavery to Grandcourt, it's a ridiculous toss away scene. I honestly put the book down and said, "Really, George Eliot, after 700 pages, THIS is what you come up with - he drowns? Come on." And of course, Gwen uses this as a reason to feel increasingly sorry for herself and try to lure Deronda in even more, but he's not biting.
Though it took me a month of picking this novel up and putting it down and picking it up again, interspersed with vacations and other shorter novels, to get through it, I stuck with it, and I feel it was worth it. While not one of my favorite Eliot novels, as her last complete novel, I felt it was important to read it. Overall, the relationships are odd and not tidy and uncomfortable and contrived. Still, Eliot knew her craft and the book is worth a read if you are a devotee.
DNF at 65%
I don't like big books. This could have been at least 300 pages shorter. However that doesn't mean it was bad, it just means that 750 pages is too much for me. Maybe one day I'll be a better person and finish it.
I don't like big books. This could have been at least 300 pages shorter. However that doesn't mean it was bad, it just means that 750 pages is too much for me. Maybe one day I'll be a better person and finish it.
This was my first Eliot novel, and I really didn't know what I was getting into, especially regarding the focus on Judaism. But all in all, the novel presents unusual breadth and depth in its scope of themes and ideas as well as a more complex, intimate realism than many 18th-19th century authors venture to portray (or perhaps were capable of portraying). I was distantly reminded of Austen in the themes of marriage and the expectations of women in society and of Tolstoy in the broad range of themes and experiences that are offered for contemplation. But this novel provides perhaps a more intense, gritty look at society than Austen and a deeper look than Tolstoy, albeit with fewer life experiences.
I think if someone asked me for a summary of this novel, I would struggle to provide a concise, coherent synopsis because to me the plot is a hazy background to my contemplation of what Eliot is really trying to say. Yes, there are characters and events and circumstances, but there's so much more to it than that. I found many aspects of it true and relevant, but I am left with questions. Certainly we should be bold enough to break out of those limiting roles that society places us in, and certainly we should be aware of the effects of our decisions on others. Career and marriage are not the end-all fountains of meaning, happiness, or identity. But what then IS our source of identity and meaning? Religion? Judaism? Family? Tradition? The conclusion is unclear. I also found it difficult to take Deronda's pursuit of Judaism seriously, much like Pyotr Bezukhov's religious quest in War & Peace. But perhaps I'm just being cynical. Of course I have nothing against Judaism, but I speak merely in the context of this novel. I think it's difficult to portray genuine religious fervor without seeming superfluous or melodramatic.
While the book has some good qualitites, I'm not convinced it was worth my time. Through the whole second half of it I felt like I was Gwendolyn, imprisoned by her tortuous marriage to Grandcourt. I have been known to read a lot of long, dry books, but there is usually some motivating benefit that drives me through such volumes. That motivation, however, was lacking in this book.
Perhaps my thoughts will season with time, but currently I would rather not even think about this book as it became such a drudgery to finish. I all but ceased to care what happened or what was said. I just wanted it to be over. Perhaps after a long period of therapy I will be ready to read one of Eliot's more prominent novels. I did appreciate the literary references and the use of other languages.
I think if someone asked me for a summary of this novel, I would struggle to provide a concise, coherent synopsis because to me the plot is a hazy background to my contemplation of what Eliot is really trying to say. Yes, there are characters and events and circumstances, but there's so much more to it than that. I found many aspects of it true and relevant, but I am left with questions. Certainly we should be bold enough to break out of those limiting roles that society places us in, and certainly we should be aware of the effects of our decisions on others. Career and marriage are not the end-all fountains of meaning, happiness, or identity. But what then IS our source of identity and meaning? Religion? Judaism? Family? Tradition? The conclusion is unclear. I also found it difficult to take Deronda's pursuit of Judaism seriously, much like Pyotr Bezukhov's religious quest in War & Peace. But perhaps I'm just being cynical. Of course I have nothing against Judaism, but I speak merely in the context of this novel. I think it's difficult to portray genuine religious fervor without seeming superfluous or melodramatic.
While the book has some good qualitites, I'm not convinced it was worth my time. Through the whole second half of it I felt like I was Gwendolyn, imprisoned by her tortuous marriage to Grandcourt. I have been known to read a lot of long, dry books, but there is usually some motivating benefit that drives me through such volumes. That motivation, however, was lacking in this book.
Perhaps my thoughts will season with time, but currently I would rather not even think about this book as it became such a drudgery to finish. I all but ceased to care what happened or what was said. I just wanted it to be over. Perhaps after a long period of therapy I will be ready to read one of Eliot's more prominent novels. I did appreciate the literary references and the use of other languages.
Eliot's writing has few peers. I take pleasure in her descriptions and her easy style, and the confidential way she addresses her readers. This is a big book and a bit ponderous somehow; nevertheless a satisfying read, as it opens before us society's prejudices. As ever, the position of women in society is one of her themes. Here she also deals with antisemitism. She doesn't preach, but she does look squarely at the irrational prejudices embedded in society. As society changes, so too do the prejudices, but they never go away, just take on new disguises.
A powerful work, and food for thought.
A powerful work, and food for thought.
This novel doesn't work very well as a novel, but I think it's the not-working that makes it... work. Anyways I have to turn the above review into 10,000 words of reckons so wish me luck
Complex and simple and sentimental both. Daniel, the main force of a character, stands as a sensitive and careful figure who involves himself in the lives of two women. Gwendolen, beautiful and capricious, who finds herself trapped in a despised marriage, is about conscience, while Mirah is about the suffering of Daniel's lack of identity and resolution that way, partly through her brother Mordecai who is a visionary figure of fire and spirit even as his body and life on earth is weak. There are other homely or devilish characters involved, as is to be expected with Eliot. I dislike the homeliness but this is a difficult novel to review. It has its fantastic moments of drama and symbolism, such as the affair of the necklace that Gwendolen wishes to gamble away that Daniel recovers for her, and is human in its exposition of Zionism – about how some people want and need that even as others reject it.