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Set in Victorian London, Gwendolen Harleth is drawn to Daniel Deronda, a selfless and intelligent gentleman of unknown parentage, but her own desperate need for financial security may destroy her chance at happiness. Daniel Deronda is a novel by George Eliot, first published in 1876. It was the last novel she. Daniel Deronda on IMDb (1921); Daniel Deronda on IMDb (1970) (TV); Daniel Deronda on IMDb (2002) (TV); Guardian article on Daniel Deronda.
Publication date 1876 Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Daniel Deronda is a novel by, first published in 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the contemporary Victorian society of her day. The work's mixture of social satire and moral searching, along with its sympathetic rendering of proto- ideas, has made it the controversial final statement of one of the most renowned of novelists. The novel has been adapted for film three times, once as a silent feature and twice for television.
It has also been adapted for the stage, notably in the 1960s by the 69 Theatre Company in with cast as the heroine. Contents.
Plot summary Daniel Deronda contains two main strains of plot, united by the title character. The novel begins in late August 1865 with the meeting of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth in the fictional town of Leubronn, Germany. Daniel finds himself attracted to, but wary of, the beautiful, stubborn, and selfish Gwendolen, whom he sees losing all her winnings in a game of roulette. The next day, Gwendolen receives a letter from her mother telling her that the family is financially ruined and asking her to come home.
In despair at losing all her money, Gwendolen pawns a necklace and debates gambling again to make her fortune. In a fateful moment, however, her necklace is returned to her by a porter, and she realises that Daniel saw her pawn the necklace and redeemed it for her. From this point, the plot breaks off into two separate flashbacks, one which gives us the history of Gwendolen Harleth and one of Daniel Deronda. In October 1864, soon after the death of Gwendolen's stepfather, Gwendolen and her family move to a new neighbourhood. It is here that she meets Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt, a taciturn and calculating man who proposes marriage shortly after their first meeting. At first she is open to his advances, then upon discovering that Grandcourt has several children with his mistress, Lydia Glasher, she eventually flees to the German town where she meets Deronda.
This portion of the novel sets Gwendolen up as a haughty and selfish, yet affectionate daughter, admired for her beauty but suspected by many in society because of her satirical observations and somewhat behaviour. She is also prone to fits of terror that shake her otherwise calm and controlling exterior. Deronda has been raised by a wealthy gentleman, Sir Hugo Mallinger. Deronda's relationship to Sir Hugo is ambiguous, and it is widely believed, even by Deronda, that he is Sir Hugo's illegitimate son, though no one is certain.
Deronda is an intelligent, light-hearted and compassionate young man who cannot quite decide what to do with his life, and this is a sore point between him and Sir Hugo, who wants him to go into politics. One day in late July 1865, as he is boating on the Thames, Deronda rescues a young Jewish woman, Mirah Lapidoth, from attempting to drown herself. He takes her to the home of some of his friends, where they learn that Mirah is a singer. She has come to London to search for her mother and brother after running away from her father, who kidnapped her when she was a child and forced her into an acting troupe.
She finally ran away from him after discovering that he was planning to sell her into prostitution. Moved by her tale, Deronda undertakes to help her look for her mother (who turns out to have died years earlier) and brother; through this, he is introduced to London's Jewish community. Mirah and Daniel grow closer and Daniel, anxious about his growing affection for her, leaves for a short time to join Sir Hugo in Leubronn, where he and Gwendolen first meet. From here, the story picks up in 'real time'. Gwendolen returns from Germany in early September 1865 because her family has lost its fortune in an economic downturn. 'Gwendolen at the roulette table'. Daniel Deronda — The ward of the wealthy Sir Hugo Mallinger and hero of the novel, Deronda has a tendency to help others at a cost to himself.
At the start of the novel, he has failed to win a scholarship at Cambridge because of his focus on helping a friend, has been travelling abroad, and has just started studying law. He often wonders about his birth and whether or not he is a gentleman. As he moves more and more among the world-within-a-world of the Jews of the novel he begins to identify with their cause in direct proportion to the unfolding revelations of his ancestry. Eliot used the story of as part of her inspiration for Deronda. As Moses was a Jew brought up as an Egyptian who ultimately led his people to the Promised Land, so Deronda is a Jew brought up as an Englishman who ends the novel with a plan to do the same.
Deronda's name presumably indicates that his ancestors lived in the Spanish city of, prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Gwendolen Harleth — The beautiful, spoiled daughter of a widowed mother. Much courted by men, she is flirtatious but ultimately self-involved. Early in the novel, her family suffers a financial crisis, and she is faced with becoming a governess to help support herself and her family.
Seeking an escape, she explores the idea of becoming an actress and singer, but Herr Klesmer tells her that she has started too late, that she does not know the meaning of hard work, training, and sacrifice. Gwendolen marries the controlling and cruel Henleigh Grandcourt, although she does not love him. Desperately unhappy, she seeks help from Deronda, who offers her understanding, moral support and the possibility of a way out of her guilt and sorrow. As a psychological study of an immature egoist struggling to achieve greater understanding of herself and others through suffering, Gwendolen is for many Eliot's crowning achievement as a novelist and the real core of the book. Famously felt that the novel would have benefited from the complete removal of the Jewish section and the renaming of it as Gwendolen Harleth. It is true that though the novel is named after Deronda, a greater proportion is devoted to Gwendolen than to Deronda himself. Mirah Lapidoth — A beautiful Jewish girl who was born in England but taken away by her father at a young age to travel the world as a singer.
Realising, as a young woman, that her father planned to sell her as a mistress to a European nobleman, to get money for his gambling addiction, she flees from him and returns to London to look for her mother and brother. When she arrived in London she found her old home destroyed and no trace of her family. Giving in to despair, she tries to commit suicide. Rescued by Daniel, she is cared for by his friends while searching for her family and work, so that she can support herself. Sir Hugo Mallinger — A wealthy gentleman; Sir Hugo fell in love with the operatic diva Maria Alcharisi when she was young and agreed, out of love for her, to raise her son Daniel Deronda. Henleigh Mallinger Grandcourt — Sir Hugo's nephew and heir-presumptive, a wealthy, manipulative, sadistic man. Grandcourt marries Gwendolen Harleth and then embarks upon a campaign of emotional abuse.
He has a mistress, Lydia Glasher, with whom he has several children. He had promised to marry Lydia when her husband died but reneged on the promise to marry Gwendolen instead. Thomas Cranmer Lush — Henleigh Grandcourt's slavish associate. He and Gwendolen take an immediate dislike to one another. Lydia Glasher — Henleigh Grandcourt's mistress, a fallen woman who left her husband for Grandcourt and had his children.
She confronts Gwendolen, hoping to persuade her not to marry Grandcourt and protect her children's inheritance. To punish both women, Grandcourt takes the family diamonds he had given to Lydia and gives them to Gwendolen. He forces Gwendolen to wear them despite her knowing that they had been previously worn by his mistress. Ezra Mordecai Cohen — Mirah's brother.
A young Jewish visionary suffering from who befriends Daniel Deronda and teaches him about. A and proto-, Mordecai sees Deronda as his spiritual successor and inspires him to continue his vision of creating a homeland for the Jews in. Named after the biblical character, who delivers the Jews from the machinations of Haman in the.
Herr Klesmer — A German-Jewish musician in Gwendolen Harleth's social circle; Klesmer marries Catherine Arrowpoint, a wealthy girl with whom Gwendolen is friendly. He also advises Gwendolen not to try for a life on the stage. Thought to be partly based on. The Princess Halm Eberstein — Daniel Deronda's mother. The daughter of a physician, she suffered under her father's dominance; he saw her main purpose was to produce Jewish sons. To please him, she agreed to marry her cousin, knowing he adored her and would let her do as she wished after her father died. When her father was dead, she became a renowned singer and actress.
![Daniel Daniel](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125511667/928975684.jpg)
After her husband died, she gave her son to Sir Hugo Mallinger to be raised as an English gentleman, free of all the disadvantages she felt she had had as a Jew. Later when her voice seemed to be failing, she converted to Christianity to marry a Russian nobleman. Her voice recovered, and she bitterly regretted having given up her life as a performer. Now ill with a fatal disease, she begins to fear retribution for having frustrated her father's plans for his grandson. She contacts Daniel through Sir Hugo, asking him to meet her in Genoa, where she travels under pretense of consulting a doctor.
Their confrontation in Italy is one of the novel's important scenes. Afterwards, she tells Deronda where he can recover a chest full of important documents related to his Jewish heritage, gathered by her father. Literary significance and reception Influence on Jewish Zionism On its publication, Daniel Deronda was immediately translated into German and Dutch and was given an enthusiastic extended review by the Austrian Zionist rabbi and scholar. Further translations soon followed into French (1882), Italian (1883), Hebrew (1893), Yiddish (1900s) and Russian (1902). Written during a time when (similar to 20th century ) had a strong following, Eliot's novel had a positive influence on later Jewish Zionism.
It has been cited by, and as having been influential in their decision to become Zionists. Other reactions The depiction of Jews contrasted strongly with those in other novels such as ' and 's. In spite of there having been a Jewish-born Prime Minister for many years ( was baptised as a boy), the view of the Jews among the British at the time was often prejudiced, sometimes to the point of derision or revulsionwhich is reflected in opinions expressed by several of the British characters in one scene in the book. In 1948, in gave the opinion that the Jewish sections of the book were its weakest, and that a truncated version called Gwendolen Harleth should be printed on its own. Conversely, some Zionist commentators have advocated the opposite truncation, keeping the Jewish section, with Gwendolen's story omitted. Edward Said states 'Eliot uses the plight of the Jews to make a universal statement about the nineteenth century's need for a home', but Said is concerned that 'if there is a felt reality about 'the peoples of the West,' there is no such reality for the 'peoples of the East'. He believes that 'the novel therefore serves as an indication of how much in Zionism was legitimated and indeed valorized by Gentile European thought', and he argues that it exemplifies attitudes that later underpinned the British support for Jewish settlement in Palestine when Ottoman control gave way to the British mandate.
Adaptations 1921 film. ^ Eliot, George.
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