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=                           Daniel_Deronda                           =
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                            Introduction
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'Daniel Deronda' is a novel by English author George Eliot, pen name
of Mary Ann Evans, first published in eight parts (books) February to
September 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one
set in the Victorian society of her day. The work's mixture of social
satire and moral searching, along with its sympathetic rendering of
Jewish proto-Zionist ideas, has made it the controversial final
statement of one of the most renowned Victorian 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 Manchester
with Vanessa Redgrave cast as the heroine Gwendolen Harleth.

The novel has two main strands of plot, and while the "story of
Gwendolen" has been described as "one of the masterpieces of English
fiction", that part concerned with Daniel Deronda has been described
as "flat and unconvincing". All the same Daniel's story has had a
significant influence on Zionism.


                                Plot
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'Daniel Deronda' contains two main strains of plot, united by the
title character. The novel begins in September 1865 with the meeting
of Daniel 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. Gwendolen pawns a necklace and
debates gambling again to make her fortune. However, her necklace is
returned to her by a porter, and she realises that Daniel had seen her
pawn the necklace and had redeemed it for her. From this point, the
plot breaks off into two separate flashbacks; one gives us Gwendolen's
history and the other Daniel's.

In October 1864, soon after the death of Gwendolen's stepfather,
Gwendolen and her family move to a new neighborhood. 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, but upon discovering that Grandcourt has
several children with his mistress, Lydia Glasher, she eventually
flees to the German town where she meets Daniel. 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 manipulative
behaviour. She is also prone to fits of terror that shake her
otherwise calm and controlling exterior.

Daniel has been raised by a wealthy gentleman, Sir Hugo Mallinger.
Daniel's relationship to Sir Hugo is ambiguous, and it is widely
believed, even by Daniel, that he is Sir Hugo's illegitimate son,
though no one is certain. Daniel is an intelligent 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,
Daniel 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 had kidnapped her when she was a child and had forced her into an
acting troupe. She finally ran away from him after discovering that he
had pledged her in marriage to a wealthy patron. Moved by her tale,
Daniel 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. She is unwilling to marry (the only respectable way in which
a woman could achieve real financial security); and she is also
reluctant to become a governess, because it would drastically lower
her social status from being a member of the wealthy landed gentry to
being almost a servant. She hits upon the idea of pursuing a career in
singing or on the stage, but a prominent musician tells her she does
not have the talent. Finally, to save herself and her family from
relative poverty, she marries the wealthy Grandcourt, despite having
promised Mrs. Glasher she would not, and despite fearing that it is a
mistake. She believes she can manipulate him to maintain her freedom
to do what she likes; however, Grandcourt has shown every sign of
being cold, unfeeling, and manipulative himself.

Daniel, searching for Mirah's family, meets a consumptive visionary
named Mordecai. Mordecai passionately proclaims his wish for the
Jewish people to retain their national identity and to be restored one
day to the Promised Land. Because he is dying, he wants Daniel to
become his intellectual heir and continue to pursue his dream to be an
advocate for the Jewish people. Although Daniel is strongly drawn to
Mordecai, he hesitates to commit himself to a cause that seems to have
no connection to his own identity. Daniel's desire to embrace
Mordecai's vision becomes stronger when they discover Mordecai is
Mirah's brother Ezra. Daniel feels affection and respect for
Mordecai/Ezra, but does not feel able to pursue a life of advocacy for
Jewish causes, since he does not believe that he himself is a Jew.

Meanwhile, Gwendolen has been emotionally crushed by her cold,
self-centred, and manipulative husband. She is consumed with guilt for
having possibly disinherited Lydia Glasher's children by marrying
their father. On Gwendolen's wedding day, Mrs. Glasher curses her and
tells her that she will suffer for her treachery, which only
exacerbates Gwendolen's feelings of dread and terror. During this
time, Gwendolen and Daniel meet regularly, and Gwendolen pours out her
troubles to him at each meeting. During a trip to Italy, Grandcourt is
knocked from his boat into the water, and after some hesitation,
Gwendolen jumps into the Mediterranean in a futile attempt to save
him. She is consumed with guilt because she had long wished he would
die and fears her hesitation had caused his death. Coincidentally,
Daniel is also in Italy, having learned from Sir Hugo that his mother
lives there. He comforts Gwendolen and advises her. Gwendolen is in
love with Daniel, and hopes for a future with him, but he urges her
onto a path of righteousness, encouraging her to alleviate her
suffering by helping others.

Daniel meets his mother and learns that she was a famous Jewish opera
singer with whom Sir Hugo was once in love. She tells him that her
father, a physician and strict Jew, had forced her to marry her
cousin, whom she did not love. She resented the rigid piety of her
childhood. Daniel was the only child of that union, and on her
husband's death, she asked Sir Hugo to raise her son as an English
gentleman, never to know that he was Jewish. Upon learning of his true
origins, Daniel finally feels comfortable with his love for Mirah, and
on his return to England in October 1866, he tells Mirah this and
commits himself to be Ezra/Mordecai's disciple. Before Daniel marries
Mirah, he goes to Gwendolen to tell her about his origins, his
decision to go to "the East" (per Ezra/Mordecai's wish), and his
betrothal to Mirah. Gwendolen is devastated, but it becomes a turning
point in her life, inspiring her to finally say, "I shall live." She
is aware of the "terrible moment" when "the great movements of the
world, the larger destinies of mankind… enter like an earthquake into
their own lives". According to A. Sanders: "Gwendolen's is a crisis
resultant from 'feeling the pressure of a vast mysterious movement'
whose mystery remains unsolved, perhaps unsolvable". She sends Daniel
a letter on his wedding day, telling him not to think of her with
sadness but to know that she will be a better person for having known
him. The newlyweds are all prepared to set off for "the East" with
Mordecai, when Mordecai dies in their arms, and the novel ends.


                             Characters
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* 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 Moses
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 Ronda, 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. F. R. Leavis 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 consumption who befriends Daniel Deronda and teaches
him about Judaism. A Kabbalist and proto-Zionist, Mordecai sees
Deronda as his spiritual successor and inspires him to continue his
vision of creating a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Named after
the biblical character Mordecai, who delivers the Jews from the
machinations of Haman in the 'Book of Esther'
* Herr Julius 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 Franz Liszt or Anton Rubinstein.
* 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. 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.


                       The depiction of Jews
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The depiction of Jews contrasted strongly with those in other novels
such as Dickens' 'Oliver Twist'. Despite there being a Jewish-born
Prime Minister (Benjamin Disraeli was baptised as a boy into the
Church of England following his father's renunciation of Judaism), the
view of Jews among non-Jewish Britons at the time was often
prejudiced, sometimes to the point of derision or revulsion. In 1833
when the Jewish Civil Disabilities Bill came before Parliament the
whole force of the Tory Party and the personal antagonism of King
William IV was against the bill, which is reflected in opinions
expressed by several of the non-Jewish Meyrick family in Chapter 32.


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 David Kaufmann. Further
translations soon followed into French (1882), Italian (1883), Hebrew
(1893), Yiddish (1900s) and Russian (1902).

Written during a time when Restorationism (similar to 20th century
Christian Zionism) had a strong following, Eliot's novel had a
positive influence on later Jewish Zionism. It has been cited by
Henrietta Szold, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, and Emma Lazarus as having been
influential in their decision to become Zionists. According to
American novelist Ruchama Feuerman, Lazarus, the Jewish poet of Statue
of Liberty fame, became a passionate Zionist after reading 'Daniel
Deronda;' it was the go-to novel for budding Zionist leaders, like
Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, and others; Golda Meir kept the
novel near her bed; the book lit a fire under university student
Ben-Yehuda who went on to devote his life to reviving ancient Hebrew
and shaping it for usage in modern day Palestine; and most crucially,
Eliot’s novel spurred the first Zionist group of Jews, 'Hovavei
Tzion', to sail to Palestine in the 1880s.


                           Plot structure
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In 1948, F. R. Leavis in 'The Great Tradition' 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.

Contemporary readers might ask themselves whether the seemingly
bifurcated structure of the novel arose from a wish to contrast
inward-looking (Gwendolen) and outward-looking (Deronda, on the Jewish
'question') moral growth, with Deronda himself the fulcrum.


Books
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An abridged (119 page) version for younger readers, by Philip
Zimmerman, focusing on the Jewish elements, was published in 1961 by
Herzl Press.


Films
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Film adaptations include:
* 'Gwendolin' (1914), an American short film directed by Travers Vale.
* 'Daniel Deronda' (1921), a British silent drama film starring
Reginald Fox, Ann Trevor and Clive Brook. Walter Courtney Rowden made
the film at Teddington Studios by Master Films.
* 'Daniel Deronda' (1970), a six-episode BBC TV drama written by
Alexander Baron, produced by David Conroy and directed by Joan Craft.
John Nolan starred as Daniel Deronda, with Martha Henry as Gwendolen
and Robert Hardy as Grandcourt.
* 'Daniel Deronda' (2002), a four-episode BBC One serial drama written
by Andrew Davies, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hugh Dancy in
the title role. The show won two British Academy Television Craft
Awards, a Banff Rockie Award, and a Broadcasting Press Guild Award.


                           External links
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*
*
*[http://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/19   'Daniel Deronda']
free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical standard
with Eliot's final corrections) at the
'[https://georgeeliotarchive.org George Eliot Archive]'
* *


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Deronda