George Eliot's 'Daniel Deronda' Notebooks
by George Eliot
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| Eliot explores marginalization and Jewish identity | 1 | 10/24/2007 04:13AM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 728)
Read in December, 2007
This was no Middlemarch, but I do think it's amazing that I can still enjoy a book by an author who has been dead a little over 120 years. There were a few really great one-liners in there which show what a comic genius Eliot could be. There were also some beautiful sentiments about relationships and the constraints put on women during Eliot's time (seen at times in Gwendolen's character, but mostly in Daniel's mother).
My criticism of the novel was that Eliot spent a lot of time developing...more
My criticism of the novel was that Eliot spent a lot of time developing...more
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Read in August, 2007
Finally finished Daniel Deronda! I didn't get as drawn into this book as I did other Eliot novels like Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, two of my favorite Victorian novels. However, the character of Gwendolyn in particular was great; it's so unusual to find a Victorian heroine who declares, "I shall never love anybody. I can't love people. I hate them." Her character reminded me of Wilkie Collins's Lydia Gwilt and of Edith Wharton's Lily Bart. But whereas both Lydia...more
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Read in May, 2007
My friend Mandy recommended this a few years back, when we were both still in college and had way too many other books we were supposed to be reading.
After having read, I found it an engrossing read, but also had trouble with the treatment/dismissal of one of the main characters.
Gwendolyn Harleth is vain, petty, and eventually marries for money and convention. Typically, the sort of character readers love to hate. I know I enjoyed it. But at some point, I felt I had invested, as a r...more
After having read, I found it an engrossing read, but also had trouble with the treatment/dismissal of one of the main characters.
Gwendolyn Harleth is vain, petty, and eventually marries for money and convention. Typically, the sort of character readers love to hate. I know I enjoyed it. But at some point, I felt I had invested, as a r...more
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Read in January, 2007
I hadn't read this book since college when I picked it up again recently, I realized I was in for a long, slow read. This is a densely written book, in a classic 19th century British style, which means there's a tremendous amount of detail about physical places that frankly, I could do without. The book has its flaws, but it's fascinating to watch the evolution of the self-absorbed, appallingly spoiled protagonist, Gwendolyn Harleth, after she makes a miserable match with a man of fortune. Inter...more
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Read in June, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in March, 2005
What is so curious about this book is the opposing narratives between Gwendolyn and Daniel. It is like a book sliced in half between its Gwendolyn's Gothic elements and Daniel's "new" quest. So cut in half is the narrative, that in Israel the book is only published with Daniel's chapters. No one notices? or no one cares? Strange it is also as a work of Victorian literature centering around Jews. Usually the usurperous shopkeeper or the evil begger, Jews are suddenly people who are just...more
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Read in November, 2007
wow this an amazing bit of writing about the position of oppressed groups in English society in the 1860s, specifically women and Jews. Eliot is brilliant in her portrayal of how people get trapped by circumstances, how they might resist those traps and how and why they might fail. The issues which I always think of as current: identity politics, questions of assimilation, how power relationships function, etc are put into play as the driving force of this very very slow-moving very very long ...more
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Read in October, 2007
I love George Eliot. I love her intelligent, erudite, incredibly critical, and, yes, pedantic view of the world. And I find that the longer and more pedantic her fiction, the more I like it. If you want to check her out, don't go the lazy route and read the much shorter Silas Marner, because it's just not that good. But Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda are vast, sprawling, and wonderful. This book takes commitment and stamina, but it's worth it for the complex and compelling characters and the ast...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Marge by:
Book group friend
Every year my book group reads a long Victorian novel in December and January, and this 900 page gem was this year's choice. George Eliot's intelligence, curiosity, humanity shine through on every page, and the characters, some full - some less so, are vividly portrayed. The worlds of the English aristocracy and of many levels of English society as well as the worlds of Jewish merchants and visionaries come to life as well. A strongly feminist novel, this book demands the right to know one's ...more
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This book has some slow moments during some of the Judaism-related chapters, but I really recomend it. I can't thnk of a character more opposite to Dorothea Brooke that Gwendolyn, but life lessons bring here to a wholely diferent outlook. Grandcourt is truly frightening in his capability to train everything in his life from his dogs to his wife.
One of the only victorian novels with a positive portrayal of Jews (besides Our Mutual Friend), but here the Jews are central characters. Eliot portr...more
One of the only victorian novels with a positive portrayal of Jews (besides Our Mutual Friend), but here the Jews are central characters. Eliot portr...more
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"Was she beautiful or not beautiful? and what was the secret of form or expression which gave the dynamic quality to her glance? Was the good or the evil genius dominant in those beams? Probably the evil; else why was the effect that of unrest rather than undisturbed charm? Why was the wish to look again felt as a coercion and not as a longing in which the whole being consents?"
Who can resist the intrigue of Gwendolen? I'm not sure if I can say this beats out Middlemarch as my favo...more
Who can resist the intrigue of Gwendolen? I'm not sure if I can say this beats out Middlemarch as my favo...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
only people who HAVE to read it
I normally try to take offensive stuff in books (especially older ones) with a grain of salt. However. I have to confess that I couldn't even finish Daniel Deronda. The anti-semitism was really bad in some places, and by the time I made it through the scene where Daniel had dinner with the Jewish family, I was just tired of reading it. So I quit. Call me a bad person, but I guess we shouldn't read what we don't want to read. =)
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I just started this yesterday. It isn't off to a great start - I'm bored after the first chapter. But I had this same experience with Middlemarch, it took me about 100 pages to get into the book. I'm glad I stuck with it because I now consider it be one of the greatest books ever written - comparable to Pride and Prejudice on every level. Fortunately it was 800 pages, as is this one, so when things finally get interesting around page 100 there is still plenty to look forward to.
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Read in August, 2007
Although not George Eliot's best work, Daniel Deronda is still worth reading. Eliot's attempt to explore Jewish mysticism is difficult to muddle through, even with copious footnotes. Her portrayal of Gwendolyn is far more compelling and complex than that of the saintly Deronda or the overly simplified Mirah. Frankly, I found myself wondering most at Gwendolyn's reliance on Deronda. She was a more interesting character when she was hopelessly flawed.
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Read in March, 2006
"She had a low forehead, a dull grey eye, a vast pendulous nose, a huge mouth full of uneven teeth and a chin and jawbone 'qui n'en finissent pas' ... Now in this vast ugliness resides a most powerful beauty which, in a very few minutes, steals forth and charms the mind, so that you end, as I ended, in falling in love with her. Yes, behold me in love with this great horse-faced bluestocking."
-Henry James on George Eliot. LOLZ!
-Henry James on George Eliot. LOLZ!
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Those who like to read...
This book is an amazing feat of literature. The novel begins as a typical 19th Century novel and branches out to explore uncharted territory. I would recommend reading this if you like Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." Gwendolen Harleth is a fabulously interesting character, but as the novel goes on, the plot somewhat gets usurped from her as Eliot attempts to explore more broad or unforeseen themes. This is slightly upsetting.
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recommends it for:
people who already like George Eliot
There are chunks of this book that are not so good, long bits about Jewish nationalism that are both prescient and painfully dated, but the thing as a whole is interesting, and there is good stuff about scientific advancement. It gives you a better picture of how smart Eliot was as a person than anything else I've read of hers, but it might show her as slightly less smart as an author. Not the one to start with, certainly.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
Daniel Deronda is the rare male protagonist who is self-aware, mature, and searching. He's probably the most admirable male character I've read in a novel. But Eliot doesn't just write about saints; a lead female character, for example, undergoes a brilliantly described, painful learning curve as she comes becomes acquainted with Daniel and comes to understand that his motives are far superior to hers.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone that likes classics
This one was an interesting look at a young mans life and the choices he makes and how he comes to find out about who he is and where he came from and the love connections he makes and the type of woman he ends up falling in love with. Loved the descriptions and details of George Eliots' writing she was very intellectual but still put a little romance in there so people would read it i think.
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Hayley by:
Professor Jules Lawrecommends it for: people who REALLY like wordy Victorian writing
Literally two totally different Victorian novels in one. The first one is like a Pride and Prejudice where none of the characters are likable, and the second one is a mildly offensive story about Jews in Victorian England. Still had some pretty interesting and moving parts buried in the 900 pages. Absolute torture to have to read 100 pages every M, W, F for 3 weeks for class though.
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