Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Daniel Deronda
    Unavailable
    Daniel Deronda
    Unavailable
    Daniel Deronda
    Ebook1,081 pages18 hours

    Daniel Deronda

    By George Eliot

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    One of the finest works by George Eliot featuring the noble Daniel Deronda who becomes entranced by frivolous beauty Gwendolen Harleth and though she shares his feelings fate conspires to keep them apart. Gwendolen, facing financial ruin, is forced into an oppressive marriage with the sinister but wealthy aristocrat Henleigh Grandcourt and Daniel finds a new life through his friendship with Jewish singer Mirah Lapidoth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSovereign
    Release dateFeb 15, 2013
    ISBN9781909676985
    Author

    George Eliot

    George Eliot was the pseudonym for Mary Anne Evans, one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, who published seven major novels and several translations during her career. She started her career as a sub-editor for the left-wing journal The Westminster Review, contributing politically charged essays and reviews before turning her attention to novels. Among Eliot’s best-known works are Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, in which she explores aspects of human psychology, focusing on the rural outsider and the politics of small-town life. Eliot died in 1880.

    Read more from George Eliot

    Related to Daniel Deronda

    Related ebooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Robert Thicknesse on Opera

      Apr 27, 2023

      I WAS AS EXCITED AS everyone else to learn that opera actually exists in New Zealand — two things surely linked before only by their joint gold for the world’s least fashionable phenomena. Not only that, but it turns out that Kiwis have a thriving ne

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel

      Dec 9, 2017

      I tend to buy used books in bunches, which means the haul from some expeditions stays buried for weeks, months, years even. For this entry, I highlight three finds that, breaking custom, I bought and read almost immediately this year: Hugo Charteris’

      6 min read

    • Article

      To Make Art Is To Be Human

      Oct 13, 2021

      IN 1950, Ernst Gombrich published The Story of Art. The book was an instant bestseller and was the first to show that there was, indeed, such a thing as a story of art, that artists and movements existed not in isolated moments of time, but as part o

      7 min read

    • Article

      Miss Clara And The Celebrity Beast In Art, 1500-1860 Review – A Quietly Amazing Menagerie

      Nov 14, 2021

      In 1741, a retired Dutch sea captain called Douwe Mout van der Meer brought to Rotterdam from India the first live rhinoceros to be seen in mainland Europe since 1579. He named this marvellous beast Clara, and for the next 17 years the two of them to

      4 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Francis Spufford Vividly Recreates an 18th-Century New York in ‘Golden Hill’

      Jul 26, 2018

      Dear Reader, envision that Village which grew upon the southern strand of that isle of Manhattoes: a Lenape settlement purchased for 60 guilders and named for Amsterdam, later to be acquired by gunships of King James, and her wooden-legged governor r

      7 min read

    • Article

      Spell

      Apr 25, 2018

      Spell
      4 min read

    • Article

      Rome After Dark

      Mar 2, 2020

      Rome After Dark
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Key To The Collapse Of Our cultural Self-confidence

      Nov 26, 2020

      IN 2019 RACHEL WHITEREAD was made Dame of the British Empire “for services to art”. Since her “art” consists in making casts of the interior of everyday objects (the underside of a chair, a room or, most famously, an entire about-to-be-demolished hou

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      John Ashbery

      Mar 15, 2019

      He could understand the things at home.—Wallace Stevens, “Things of August” Scribbled on the expansive mist, the desireof many dwindles to usand our “activities,” wholesomeor otherwise. Soon it becomes apparentthat neither they nor I have any prise o

      4 min read

    • Article

      Family Drama

      Feb 18, 2021

      Family Drama
      4 min read

    • Article

      Woman About Town

      Sep 29, 2022

      ONE MIGHT IMAGINE THAT most people would be rather flattered to find themselves described as “the chosen ones”, but not so the “international aesthetes” who according to a French magazine are injecting new life into Venice. Like all cosmopolitan citi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ship Of Fools

      Sep 29, 2022

      AS A SIMPLE GLANCE at most of them will tell you, there’s not a whole bunch of fun in being an opera critic — so we tend to greet the faintest prospect of joy with breathless hope. Imagine, then, the bitter gall we had to drink when the summer’s inco

      3 min read

    • Article

      Freaky Fascinations

      Feb 27, 2020

      Freaky Fascinations
      10 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Satire

      Jan 26, 2023

      THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE to be seen as devotees of the Muses are having a fine old time squealing about the Proletcult-style despoliation of the arts in Britain, with public funding being withdrawn by a Visigothic Arts Council from their frivolous pleasu

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Quietest Guest Of All

      Mar 30, 2023

      Crown your career with the clavichord. You cannot, I admit, play concertos with big ensembles, since it does not roar and thunder like the pianoforte; neither can you, surrounded by a large audience, sound above their shouts of bravo and make their c

      4 min read

    • Article

      Apparition

      Mar 26, 2020

      Apparition
      8 min read

    • Article

      Double Trouble In Chaotic Comedy

      Nov 25, 2021

      THE ARRIVAL OF THE Christmas season is a reminder that while the West End is the beating heart of British theatre, it is in what used to be called the “provinces” — now more delicately in arts-speak the “regions” — that most of the country experience

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ovid’s Exilic Imagination

      May 25, 2022

      I suggest that Ovid was not simply exiled, but that he also exiled himself. The post Ovid’s Exilic Imagination appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      Sublime in Seville

      Oct 28, 2021

      Sublime in Seville
      4 min read

    • Article

      Medieval Life

      Dec 21, 2023

      Medieval Life
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dürer’s Journeys: Travels Of A Renaissance Artist Review – All Over The Place

      Nov 21, 2021

      Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was the most intrepid traveller in the history of art. From his home city of Nuremberg he crossed the Alps more than once in treacherous conditions, staying in icy mountain shelters. The ship on which he sailed for six days

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Daniel Deronda

    4/5

    556 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      The character of Daniel Deronda rises to meet all the accolades, in and out of the book, and yet, as an adult, he strangely continues to lackthe simple courage to ask Sir Hugo who his parents really are or were. This lack of resolution goes on way too long and, with the endless self-pitying introspection of self absorbed and entitled Gwendolyn, makes the book at least one quarter too long. His hesitation with Gwendolyn is self serving and makes one wonder if the passion aroused around the gambling table ever went extinct.Gambling was boring while archery stands out, making one long to join an Archery Ball and and Archery Picnic!And, there are always George Eliot gems: "The best introduction to astronomy is to think of the nightly heavens as a little lot of stars belonging to one's own homestead."While many characters are finely drawn, I wish that Mirah had been less meek (giving up her purse to her father, c'mon),making readers wonder if she will be a match for Daniel or continue to stay in awesome acquiescing mode.
    • 5/5
      Still, IMHO, the best Eliot. Bigger issues, and you always know Eliot's way smarter than you and point/counter-pointed it already.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic intertwining of two stories centred around Deronda, thoroughly enjoyed.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book by one of my favorite authors. It is the only one she wrote that occurs during her contemporary times and deals with antisemitism in English Victorian society.
    • 3/5
      There are few times when I find myself completely agreeing with critics of the books I read, but in the case of "Daniel Deronda" (1876) I found the observation from F.R. Leavis that the book ought to have been split in half and the good part be published separately under the title "Gwendolen Harleth" dead-on. For "Daniel Deronda" has two main story lines which are only loosely coupled, and while the one featuring haughty and spiritually bereft Gwendolen Harleth sizzles from the first page ("Was she beautiful or not beautiful?"), the other, featuring the Jewish characters Mirah, Mordecai, and Daniel drag the book down. Comparing the book to her masterpiece "Middlemarch" may be unfair, but what's missing is its breadth of characters and life; in the Deronda portions of the book in particular Eliot is too heavy-handed and often falls into over-analysis. There are some who will recoil at occasional overt anti-semitic statements; I cut Eliot some slack because (1) as with other authors we must remember the time in which she wrote, (2) the overall message about the profundity of the Jewish faith embodied in its spiritual characters is quite positive, and (3) Eliot was about 20 years ahead of her time in suggesting that a separate Israeli state be created (Herzl's "The Jewish State" was published in 1896), though she was a bit naive ("there will be a land set for a halting-place of enmities, a neutral ground..." Ha!). It's also clear from a letter she wrote to Harriet Beecher Stowe that her intentions were 100% good.The character of Gwendolen is memorable, as is her marriage to the reptilian Grandcourt, who slowly but surely squeezes the life out of her like a boa constrictor. If the book could have been 200-300 pages shorter such that the Deronda portions were present but streamlined and a subplot, it would have been far better.Quotes:On marriage:"...to become a wife and wear all the domestic fetters of that condition, was on the whole a vexatious necessity. Her observation of matrimony had inclined her to think it rather a dreary state, in which a woman could not do what she liked, had more children than were desirable, was consequently dull, and became irrevocably immersed in humdrum. Of course marriage was social promotion; she could not look forward to a single life; but promotions have sometimes to be taken with bitter herbs...""Perhaps other men's lives were of the same kind - full of secrets which made the ignorant suppositions of the women they wanted to marry a farce at which they were laughing in their sleeves."Further, on women's position in the world:"We women can't go in search of adventures - to find out the North-West passage or the source of the Nile, or to hunt tigers in the East. We must stay where we grow, or where the gardeners like to transplant us. We are brought up like flowers, to look as pretty as we can, and be dull without complaining. That is my notion about the plants: they are often bored, and that is the reason why some of them have got poisonous.""You are not a woman. You can try - but you can never imagine what it is to have a man's force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl. To have a pattern cut out - 'this is the Jewish woman; this is what you must be; this is what you are wanted for; a woman's heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed receipt.' That was what my father wanted."On the goodness that exists potentially in all of us:"...if only these two beautiful young creatures could have pledged themselves to each other then and there, and never through life have swerved from that pledge! For some of the goodness which Rex believed in was there. Goodness is a large, often prospective word; like harvest, which at one stage when we talk of it lies all underground, with an indeterminate future: is the germ prospering in the darkness? at another, it has put forth delicate green blades, and by-and-by the trembling blossoms are ready to be dashed off by an hour of rough wind or rain. Each stage has its own particular blight, and may have the healthy life choked out of it by a particular action of the foul land which rears or neighbours it, or by damage brought from foulness afar."On knowing another person:"Attempts at description are stupid: who can all at once describe a human being? even when he is presented to us we only begin that knowledge of his appearance which must be completed by innumerable impressions under different circumstances."On ignorance:"Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down. Knowledge, through patient and frugal centuries, enlarges discovery and makes record of it; Ignorance, wanting its day's dinner, lights a fire with the record, and gives a flavour to its one roast with the burnt souls of many generations."On delusion:"Parents are astonished at the ignorance of their sons, though they have used the most time-honoured and expensive means of securing it; husbands and wives are mutually astonished at the loss of affection which they have taken no pains to keep; and all of us in our turn are apt to be astonished that our neighbours do not admire us."On socialism:"There are enough inevitable turns of fortune which force us to see that our gain is another's loss: - that is one of the ugly aspects of life. One would like to reduce it as much as one could, not get amusement out of exaggerating it."On memories of home:"To most men their early home is no more than a memory of their early years, and I'm not sure but they have the best of it. The image is never marred. There's no disappointment in memory, and one's exaggerations are always on the good side."On zionism:"The idea that I am possessed with is that of restoring a political existence to my people, making them a nation again, giving them a national centre, such as the English have, though they too are scattered over the face of the globe."
    • 4/5
      I ended up liking the book more than I thought I would. Gwendolen Harleth is really a fantastic character, and Eliot has a superb mastery of the consciousness of people from many different backgrounds. A word to the wise: parsing through the language is a little like trying to kill yourself with a feather.
    • 4/5
      Ambitious and thought-provoking, as always. Daniel Deronda begins as a traditional novel of courtship and marriage. Then, a hundred pages in, it becomes an unconventional exploration of nationalism and morality, with a conclusion that I'm sure would have been quite daring for its time.

      I'm not sure how well Eliot's musings about nationalism have aged; in a large part this book is about ethnic identity and Zionism, and Daniel Deronda's happily ever after as a Zionist feels unconvincing now that we've had sixty years of conflict in Palestine. Eliot's specific claims - that, despite the fact that some people just aren't interested in their background, or that background entails suffering in the form of discrimination or internal sexism, group identity has something to offer its members - is something with which most people will agree to a point, but perhaps not to the point that Eliot wants to take it.

      However, I imagine this was a groundbreaking novel in its portrayal of Jewish characters, and the comparisons between the female characters in Mirah's world and Gwendolen herself were genius.

      I also found Daniel, while at times a bit preachy, a very compelling character, whose total willingness to sympathize and try to understand the world leaves him unable to act in it. From this perspective, Daniel's taking on an identity is crucial and gives him a context from which to act. His adoption of this identity feels troublesomely random, but perhaps this is Eliot being a bit sly and unessentialist.
    • 3/5
      Although this Victorian classic has many of the usual threads - arranging marriages for fortune or title, love triangles, and the issue of social class structure - this book adds the unusual addition of the emerging Zionist movement. I have always cringed whenever reading passages in Victorian novels that have Jewish characters. These people usually have pretty minor roles, but are always portrayed as unattractive, lacking morals and being overall villains or lower class. Slurs against Jews abound in books from this time period. Eliot has definitely taken a brave step in portraying the title character, Daniel Deronda, as an Englishman, brought up with all the advantages of money and class, but with a murky birth history. As an adult, he discovers his Jewish roots which he embraces wholeheartedly. My biggest peeve with this book is that Eliot's motives of portraying Jews in a positive light and educating the world about Zionism are portrayed awkwardly. Deronda's reaction of completely embracing his Judaism seems unrealistic. Jews were treated as second class citizens and the book has long passages of preaching. Definitely this book was admirable for its intent, but not as well executed as it could have been.
    • 4/5
      It would be superfluous for me to repeat the many excellent reviews given already. Here are my thoughts on finally completing this long and may I say,difficult work.Daniel Deronda himself I found self-satisfied and something of a prig.His treatment of Gwendolen at the end was nothing more than disgraceful and could well have led to her committing suicide. Gwendolen Harleth is for the most part a most annoying person. She is a spoilt and pampered creature with few good points except a deep love for her mother. The real villain is Henleigh Mallenger Grandcourt whom Gwendolen feels forced to marry due to the fact that he is rich and her family has lost their own money.This turns out to be a regrettable decision as Grandcourt is also cruel and cold to a remarkable degree.Deronda himself saves a young girl from drowning herself (his only true act of goodness it seems to me) She turns out to be a Jewess called Mirah who is the only main character in the book with whom one can truly empathise. She has a brother,Mordecai,who to be frank,must be one of the most boring person ever written about. He goes on and on for pages and pages about the Jewish religion until you want to hit him.As I have said about other books,the reader must be able to sympathise with at least some of the main characters and in this cast one just cannot. All power to George Eliot for writing this complicated and detailed story which runs in my edition to over 800 pages. I'm glad I've read it,but unlike some of her other books,I won't be returning to it.
    • 5/5
      This is my all time favorite novel. Eliot managed to combine the social issues of prejudice, upbringing, and class creating a wonderful tale of love and finding one's own self.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those works of classic British literature that is apparently absolutely fantastic and a must read for everyone (especially English majors), but which is extremely difficult and at times mind-numbingly boring.I like George Eliot, I really do. I think she was a great writer, and the themes and techniques she uses in her novels are pretty cool and make for some fun discussions (that is, if you're the kind of person who gets into conversations about, as one example, the rise of the middle class/democracy in the nineteenth century as shown in really long novels). But I don't like reading her books. Daniel Deronda didn't keep my attention, and I felt like I had to force myself through the middle section, and I never did read the entire thing, though I skipped to the end and I have a good idea of how the story goes. Maybe one day, I'll go back to the novel and try it again, but that probably won't be until I've read absolutely everything else on my shelves, I'm sure.Daniel Deronda is marginally more entertaining than Mill on the Floss, and definitely more enjoyable than David Copperfield, but it's really really long and Victorian, and, well, I'd rather see a film version than read it.
    • 4/5
      Not for the faint hearted, make sure to drink plenty of liquids before hand, but well worth the effort. Plenty of bon-mots for the book club.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful classic novel by George Eliot about a young jewish man's struggles to survive and choose the right love.This is one of the most beautifully written novels of its day, and is timeless in its message.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Daniel Deronda is one of the most admirable and remarkable characters I've ever encountered. He is saintly and kind but he hasn't been very dynamic in the novel. However, Gwendolyn Harneth takes the place of the female protagonist who was a spoiled brat at first but has encountered so many strifes, brought about by the consequences of her actions, which led her to a painful curve towards learning. Eliot's attempt to explore Jewish mysticism is difficult to muddle through, even with copious footnotes. I love this book but I'm looking forward to read Mill of the Floss and Middlemarch this year so I am not certain which one I will like best until I read the others.
    • 5/5
      I have a sneaking suspicion that I have just read the best book I will read in 2016- [Daniel Deronda] by [George Eliot]. I have now read all of Eliot's works and this is by far the best layered and most emotion illiciting book of the bunch. This is Eliot's final and most in-depth novel. It does not take place in rural England, but in a very modern London. Although the book is titled Daniel Deronda, he often plays second fiddle to several other characters. The plot is two-fold, one plot line involving traditional English class society and focusing on the life and fate of Gwendolen Harleth, an initially arrogant and pampered young woman who, through a series of misadventures, chooses to marry Grandcourt, a corrupt and domineering titled Englishman who makes her life a misery. The second plot line involves a young Jewess, Mirah, and her brother Mordecai (Ezra), following their struggles in England. The two plots are linked by Daniel Deronda, presumably a bastard child of a wealthy man.This work by Eliot tackled the really tough topic of Zionism. In fact I read that following Eliot's death, there were attempts to publish the book without the Zionist parts. Highly recommend this book! 5 stars!
    • 5/5
      I have a sneaking suspicion that I have just read the best book I will read in 2016- [Daniel Deronda] by [George Eliot]. I have now read all of Eliot's works and this is by far the best layered and most emotion illiciting book of the bunch. This is Eliot's final and most in-depth novel. It does not take place in rural England, but in a very modern London. Although the book is titled Daniel Deronda, he often plays second fiddle to several other characters. The plot is two-fold, one plot line involving traditional English class society and focusing on the life and fate of Gwendolen Harleth, an initially arrogant and pampered young woman who, through a series of misadventures, chooses to marry Grandcourt, a corrupt and domineering titled Englishman who makes her life a misery. The second plot line involves a young Jewess, Mirah, and her brother Mordecai (Ezra), following their struggles in England. The two plots are linked by Daniel Deronda, presumably a bastard child of a wealthy man.This work by Eliot tackled the really tough topic of Zionism. In fact I read that following Eliot's death, there were attempts to publish the book without the Zionist parts. Highly recommend this book! 5 stars!
    • 4/5
      I really love Eliot, and I found this book really good. Eliot's style is great and she writes so beautifully, the characters are worked out well and are believable in their doubts and problems.What I found special about this book is the way Eliot writes about Jews. In Eliot's days it wasn't common to say anything positive about Jews, and though the characters have the common prejudices against Jews, the Jewish characters are such nice, good people that they all come to love them. Daniel Deronda himself is actually happy to find out that he is Jewish too. This is such a contrast with the way Jews are usually described in 18th and 19th century literature that I found it very refreshing. Apparently it didn't help to increase the popularity of the book at the time and many people felt it was wrong of Eliot to write something like this, so I think it was quite brave of her to do so anyway.Besides this, it's just a beautiful story, of love and kindness, but also of cruelty; it's a coming-of-age type of story in Gwendolyn's discovery of what the real world is like, and a bit of a mystery-story in Daniel's search for his parents and his identity. A book that has many different aspects, and definitely highly recommended...