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A review by selenareads
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
4.0
4 stars ??
This rating could change once I have more Eliot to compare it to. All I know is I was not expecting to cry twice at the end of this book. Eliot has a way with words. She uses a lot of them, so it’s tempting to skim, but then you’ll get to a sentence that you feel in your most vulnerable parts. There were two of those in this ending for me. She made me laugh expectedly and cry unexpectedly.
However, there’s certain portrayals of Jewish people that are in parts radical and stereotypical. I found Daniel a bit too perfect to love, and his story was injected with a lot of political theory at times which I felt dragged it down. Daniel denies being saintlike, and yet the narration portrays him as more angel than human. Gwendolen’s plot interested me more, but at a certain point, things stop happening and we hit a stasis. Scholarship has seen this plot as “better” but truly Gwendolen’s part is overshadowed by Daniel’s in the latter half of this book.
I really did enjoy this though, and the ending has grown on me, especially with Gwendolen’s ending. I can see Eliot’s genius and goals in this book very clearly
This rating could change once I have more Eliot to compare it to. All I know is I was not expecting to cry twice at the end of this book. Eliot has a way with words. She uses a lot of them, so it’s tempting to skim, but then you’ll get to a sentence that you feel in your most vulnerable parts. There were two of those in this ending for me. She made me laugh expectedly and cry unexpectedly.
However, there’s certain portrayals of Jewish people that are in parts radical and stereotypical. I found Daniel a bit too perfect to love, and his story was injected with a lot of political theory at times which I felt dragged it down. Daniel denies being saintlike, and yet the narration portrays him as more angel than human. Gwendolen’s plot interested me more, but at a certain point, things stop happening and we hit a stasis. Scholarship has seen this plot as “better” but truly Gwendolen’s part is overshadowed by Daniel’s in the latter half of this book.
I really did enjoy this though, and the ending has grown on me, especially with Gwendolen’s ending. I can see Eliot’s genius and goals in this book very clearly