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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Another masterpiece by George Eliot, which I liked as well as Middlemarch, her most celebrated book.
The central character, Gwendolyn, is a fascination, who attracts the readers in spite of her total self-centeredness. She did not find solutions for her life through a man, though she did attempt to do so.
Her attraction to Daniel seems to have been a reflection of her own sense of good. Yet what she felt for him was really a false image. More than Mirah perhaps she would always see him as an image rather than a real human. I did not agree with the writer of introduction of my book that she made the Jews all good and the Gentile all bad. It was just that the female character had many personal weaknesses and Daniel was a man. Eliot tended to fill out the famale characters more than the male.
My favorate part of the book was the one in which the old impoverished men are gathered in the tavern to discuss their philosophies. "I said, let my body dwell in poverty and my hands be the hands of the toiler; but let my soul be as a temple of remembrance where the treasures of knowledge enter and the inner sanctuary is hope." Mordichai, p. 155
The central character, Gwendolyn, is a fascination, who attracts the readers in spite of her total self-centeredness. She did not find solutions for her life through a man, though she did attempt to do so.
Her attraction to Daniel seems to have been a reflection of her own sense of good. Yet what she felt for him was really a false image. More than Mirah perhaps she would always see him as an image rather than a real human. I did not agree with the writer of introduction of my book that she made the Jews all good and the Gentile all bad. It was just that the female character had many personal weaknesses and Daniel was a man. Eliot tended to fill out the famale characters more than the male.
My favorate part of the book was the one in which the old impoverished men are gathered in the tavern to discuss their philosophies. "I said, let my body dwell in poverty and my hands be the hands of the toiler; but let my soul be as a temple of remembrance where the treasures of knowledge enter and the inner sanctuary is hope." Mordichai, p. 155
First half > second half
Gwendolenms story line > Daniel’s
George Eliot >>>
Gwendolenms story line > Daniel’s
George Eliot >>>
Rating 4/5
In her final novel, Eliot shows her keen understanding of human nature and the way people think. Her characterisation of the vain and selfish Gwendolen Harleth is probably one of the highlights of this book. Gwendolen is intensely unlikable at the beginning, but, through suffering, she becomes softer, seeing herself less as the centre of the world. The unpleasant Grandcourt is also a well drawn character. Daniel Deronda himself, Gwendolen's foil throughout the novel, is an interesting character too, though I think less intimately characterised than Gwendolen, who seems the main character despite the novel bearing Deronda's name.
She's certainly the main character through the early part of the book, which is quite slow moving. It's only the introduction of Mirah where the story really starts to develop. It is a long book. It wouldn't have hurt the story if it had been about 200 pages shorter. At times it felt like two different books also, with Daniel's immersion in his heritage almost making a separate story at times from his interactions with Gwendolen.
My rating is more for the scope of Eliot's vision than the execution. Her view of the world was wide and deep, and not for nothing was she called the Wise Woman. She is very wise, here: her observations of human nature are incisive. I think an opportunity was missed by not having Gwendolen interact more with Mirah, though. Making Daniel Gwendolen's moral superior seems rather condescending to me, having grown up with feminism. At the time of Eliot's writing, a man acting as a woman's moral superior may have seemed less condescending. I don't think the book dates particularly well because of that. If we'd had Mirah as Gwendolen's moral superior, it would have been a very different book, and perhaps Eliot may not have been able to include as wide a scope. I know Eliot had women helping each other in other novels (Dorothea Casaubon and Rosamond Lydgate in Middlemarch is one example), but I still would have preferred that than having Gwendolen look to a man for her salvation. I think it weakened her character quite a bit to have her so beseeching towards the end. I'd also like to have seen more of her journey, with her becoming that good woman she hoped to be.
I'd like to have seen more of some of the more minor characters too, especially the Klesmers.
Interesting ideas and scope, but Eliot's final novel wouldn't be her best for me.
In her final novel, Eliot shows her keen understanding of human nature and the way people think. Her characterisation of the vain and selfish Gwendolen Harleth is probably one of the highlights of this book. Gwendolen is intensely unlikable at the beginning, but, through suffering, she becomes softer, seeing herself less as the centre of the world. The unpleasant Grandcourt is also a well drawn character. Daniel Deronda himself, Gwendolen's foil throughout the novel, is an interesting character too, though I think less intimately characterised than Gwendolen, who seems the main character despite the novel bearing Deronda's name.
She's certainly the main character through the early part of the book, which is quite slow moving. It's only the introduction of Mirah where the story really starts to develop. It is a long book. It wouldn't have hurt the story if it had been about 200 pages shorter. At times it felt like two different books also, with Daniel's immersion in his heritage almost making a separate story at times from his interactions with Gwendolen.
My rating is more for the scope of Eliot's vision than the execution. Her view of the world was wide and deep, and not for nothing was she called the Wise Woman. She is very wise, here: her observations of human nature are incisive. I think an opportunity was missed by not having Gwendolen interact more with Mirah, though. Making Daniel Gwendolen's moral superior seems rather condescending to me, having grown up with feminism. At the time of Eliot's writing, a man acting as a woman's moral superior may have seemed less condescending. I don't think the book dates particularly well because of that. If we'd had Mirah as Gwendolen's moral superior, it would have been a very different book, and perhaps Eliot may not have been able to include as wide a scope. I know Eliot had women helping each other in other novels (Dorothea Casaubon and Rosamond Lydgate in Middlemarch is one example), but I still would have preferred that than having Gwendolen look to a man for her salvation. I think it weakened her character quite a bit to have her so beseeching towards the end. I'd also like to have seen more of her journey, with her becoming that good woman she hoped to be.
I'd like to have seen more of some of the more minor characters too, especially the Klesmers.
Interesting ideas and scope, but Eliot's final novel wouldn't be her best for me.
While not my favorite Eliot novel (that honor is reserved, forever and always, for Mill on the Floss) I did thoroughly enjoy it. Well, most of it. I'm not quite sure why it's called "Daniel Deronda" as the majority of the story revolves around Gwendolen Harleth. The Deronda plotline mainly involves spiritual/philosophical matters -- matters which lie outside my understanding and my interests. But Gwendolen's story is so heartbreakingly tragic, and it strongly resonated in me.
I just dont even understand what she was trying to do with this one, but Gwendolen (at the beginning only) was a fun character - a shame everyone got even more boring at the end
This is one of the few places in English literature where Jews appear as major characters AND are treated sympathetically. George Eliot clearly did her homework, as aspects of Jewish religion and history show up where they naturally fit in the lives of her characters. This novel was published before Theodore Herzl so I can't exactly call the romantic nationalist ideas of the Mordecai character "Zionism," but they do faithfully represent how other Jewish writers like Heinrich Heine thought establishing a Jewish national homeland would bring an end to the Jews' status as an oppressed people. Aside from all that, it's the characters in the book that make it worth reading.
challenging
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
It's a constant wonder to me that I can enjoy Eliot so much while hating all of her characters so much.
Always my favorite Eliot - her masterpiece, I think. Just re-read it and love it more than ever. Stand up for what's right even though it's difficult, dangerous, or perhaps unappealing.
Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's last complete work is probably her most ambitious.
Unlike her previous works, which were set in quaint little country villages, Daniel Deronda is set in high society London. And instead of the small-town politics and gossip, Eliot seems to have taken on global politics of the time - her time, as it's the only novel set during the Victorian Age. Eliot takes stabs at British Imperialism, common prejudices, identity issues, religion (especially the emergence of Zionism), the inheritance customs/laws, and the limitations of being a woman.
The novel has two main storylines that, of course, intersect. We have the story of Gwendolen Harleth, a vain beauty who is used to getting anything and everything she wants. When the unthinkable happens, she marries Henleigh Grandcourt .
Henleigh Grandcourt is set to inherit Daniel Deronda's home, as Daniel's legal guardian, Sir Hugo, has no sons of his own. Grandcourt, being his nephew, is the only male heir able to inherit. Henleigh is an unsavory character and weds the beautiful Gwendolen only because he wants to break her will and master her.
Daniel, being an almost-cousin of Henleigh's and a neighbor and aquaintance of Gwendolen's is involved with their story.
The other storyline is that of Mirah, a "Jewess" who is distraught and rescued by Deronda. She is searching for her lost brother and mother while trying to stay away from the father who stole her away. Daniel begins searching for her family and meets Mordecai, a Jew who is a visionary and faithful to the Kaballistic philosophy.
And in all of this is Daniel. The main character who is unsure of his parentage and his true identity. He doesn't seem to fit into anywhere at all, which is perfect as he has a foot in both of the worlds Eliot is focusing on.
Hefty, even by Eliot standards, Daniel Deronda is Tolstoy-like in its complexity with shades of Dickens in the characters and the social issues Eliot addresses.
To be very much sued or hopelessly sighed for as a bride was indeed an indispensible and agreeable guarantee of womanly power; but to become a wife and wear all the domestic fetters of that condition, was on the whole a vexatious necessity. (p.68)
The beginning of an aquaintace whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline for our own ignorance. (p.145)
Some feelings are like our hearing: they come as sounds do, before we know their reason. (p.259)
Unlike her previous works, which were set in quaint little country villages, Daniel Deronda is set in high society London. And instead of the small-town politics and gossip, Eliot seems to have taken on global politics of the time - her time, as it's the only novel set during the Victorian Age. Eliot takes stabs at British Imperialism, common prejudices, identity issues, religion (especially the emergence of Zionism), the inheritance customs/laws, and the limitations of being a woman.
The novel has two main storylines that, of course, intersect. We have the story of Gwendolen Harleth, a vain beauty who is used to getting anything and everything she wants. When the unthinkable happens
Spoiler
(she, her mother, and her sisters lose all their wealth and are left destitute)Spoiler
(so she doesn't have to go away and be a governess and her family doesn't have to be (gasp!) poor)Henleigh Grandcourt is set to inherit Daniel Deronda's home, as Daniel's legal guardian, Sir Hugo, has no sons of his own. Grandcourt, being his nephew, is the only male heir able to inherit. Henleigh is an unsavory character and weds the beautiful Gwendolen only because he wants to break her will and master her.
Spoiler
He has some skeletons in his closet as well - namely that he has three children by another woman he once promised to wed.Daniel, being an almost-cousin of Henleigh's and a neighbor and aquaintance of Gwendolen's is involved with their story.
The other storyline is that of Mirah, a "Jewess" who is distraught and rescued by Deronda. She is searching for her lost brother and mother while trying to stay away from the father who stole her away. Daniel begins searching for her family and meets Mordecai, a Jew who is a visionary and faithful to the Kaballistic philosophy.
And in all of this is Daniel. The main character who is unsure of his parentage and his true identity. He doesn't seem to fit into anywhere at all, which is perfect as he has a foot in both of the worlds Eliot is focusing on.
Hefty, even by Eliot standards, Daniel Deronda is Tolstoy-like in its complexity with shades of Dickens in the characters and the social issues Eliot addresses.
To be very much sued or hopelessly sighed for as a bride was indeed an indispensible and agreeable guarantee of womanly power; but to become a wife and wear all the domestic fetters of that condition, was on the whole a vexatious necessity. (p.68)
The beginning of an aquaintace whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline for our own ignorance. (p.145)
Some feelings are like our hearing: they come as sounds do, before we know their reason. (p.259)