Daniel Deronda (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Victorian Lit at its Height!
Review: This was a wonderful book. The characters are deep and very well developed. Daniel is a little too good to be true, but Gwendolen is the best female character of the time period. She goes through an amazing metamorphosis from spoiled brat to concerned woman. Daniel marrie Mirah because she is his kind and acceptable for him to marry for the time. Jews did not marry English Christians in the 1800's. As a Historian i would know about it. Read this book and watch the PBS companion series from 2002 , it was great!

Rating:
Summary: Must read for any George Eliot fan
Review: While Middlemarch is a thoroughly Victorian novel, Daniel Deronda looks forward to the modern period in its focus on the individual. The text primarily focuses on two individuals--Daniel Deronda and Gwendolyn Harleth. Their lives are entertwined from the first chapter in which Daniel observes, with a certain amount of disdain, a serpentine Gwendolyn gambling. By the end of the text, both characters have been transformed from the characters you meet at the beginning through self-discovery. Daniel discovers the secret of his birth while Gwendolyn is tragically disillusioned by her unfortunate marriage. The novel foreshadows the modern period's treatment of the individual searching for his identity and his place in an intolerant society.

Rating:
Summary: Must read for any George Eliot fan
Review: While Middlemarch is a thoroughly Victorian novel, Daniel Deronda looks forward to the modern period in its focus on the individual. The text primarily focuses on two individuals--Daniel Deronda and Gwendolyn Harleth. Their lives are entertwined from the first chapter in which Daniel observes, with a certain amount of disdain, a serpentine Gwendolyn gambling. By the end of the text, both characters have been transformed from the characters you meet at the beginning through self-discovery. Daniel discovers the secret of his birth while Gwendolyn is tragically disillusioned by her unfortunate marriage. The novel foreshadows the modern period's treatment of the individual searching for his identity and his place in an intolerant society.