Daniel Deronda (Audible Audio Edition) George Eliot Juliet Stevenson Naxos AudioBooks Books
Download As PDF : Daniel Deronda (Audible Audio Edition) George Eliot Juliet Stevenson Naxos AudioBooks Books
Meeting by chance at a gambling hall in Europe, the separate lives of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth are immediately intertwined. Daniel, an Englishman of uncertain parentage, becomes Gwendolyn's redeemer as she finds herself drawn to his spiritual and altruistic nature after a loveless marriage. But Daniel's path was already set when he rescued a young Jewess from suicide.
Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's final novel, is a remarkable work, encompassing themes of religion, imperialism and gender within its broad and fascinating scope.
Daniel Deronda (Audible Audio Edition) George Eliot Juliet Stevenson Naxos AudioBooks Books
"Daniel Deronda" was the last novel George Eliot wrote, and it's an appropriate finale to her career -- a lushly-written, heartfelt story about a young man searching for his past (and clues to his future), as well as a vibrant strong-willed young lady who discovers that life doesn't always go your way. Even better, Eliot deftly avoided the cliches and caricatures of the Jewish people, portraying them with love and respect.Daniel Deronda is the ward (and rumored illegitimate son) of a nobleman, who is unsure of his past (particularly of his mother) catching a glimpse of pretty, reckless, arrogant Gwendolyn Harleth at a casino. Gwendolyn (who boasts that she gets everything she wants) is interested in Daniel, but when her family loses all their money, she marries a rich suitor, a relative of Daniel's -- knowing that his mistress and illegitimate children will be disinherited. But she soon finds that her new husband is a sadistic brute, and sees Daniel as her only help.
Meanwhile, Daniel rescues the despairing Mirah Lapidoth from a suicide attempt in the river, and he helps the young Jewish singer find a home and friends to care for her. As he helps her find her family, he becomes passionately attached to the Jewish population and their plight, embodied by a dying young visionary and a kindly shopkeeping family. Then he receives an important message -- one that will illuminate his roots, and give him a course for the future.
When Eliot published her final novel, it caused a massive stir -- not many novelists tackled the plight of the Jewish population, or how it compared to the gilded upper classes. In a way, "Daniel Deronda" is both a love triangle and an allegory -- Daniel must choose between the pretty, shallow English life (Gwendolyn) or a rich Jewish heritage (Mirah) with a background of tragedy.
The biggest problem with Eliot's writing is that it becomes a little too lush and dense at times, and the narrative moves a bit slowly (in the Victorian manner). But that flaw doesn't rob her writing of its power or beauty -- she describes every feeling, gesture and emotion in detail, as well as the sumptuous balls, exquisitely gilded mansions, and every shadowy tree or rich expanse of land ("a grassy court enclosed on three sides by a gothic cloister").
Yet the greatest power is in the stories that twine like ivy over the main plot -- a young Jewish girl's search for her family, a sadistic man's search for a wild lovely girl he can break, and especially of the composer Herr Klesmer and his sweet, atypical love story with Miss Arrowpoint. And the last quarter of the book is wrapped in Daniel's search for his own family, culminating in a quietly tense encounter with someone from his long-ago past.
Daniel almost seems like a character too good to be true -- unselfish, kind, universally kindly and very intelligent, though possessed of a vaguely searching quality. Gwendolyn is his complete opposite: she has been raised to be selfish, disdainful and immature, but as the book goes on she learns that selfishness doesn't pay -- marriage to the despicable Grandcourt changes her from a selfish little girl into a scarred but stronger woman.
The third leg of the triangle is Mirah, who is not given the loving attention that Gwendolyn is, but who is still a compelling figure -- her father tried to sell her, and now she wanders through England searching for her family. And the book is littered with many other striking characters: the sadistic Grandcourt and his creepy servant Lush, the crotchety but kindly Klesmer, the spirited artist Hans, the kindly Sir Hugo and the doomed, strong-willed Mordecai.
"Daniel Deronda" is a beautiful portrait of a young man's search for his past, and a young woman's struggle with the fruits of her own selfishness. What's more, George Eliot's last novel is a loving, powerful portrait of the Jewish people, in a time when they were caricatured at best.
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Daniel Deronda (Audible Audio Edition) George Eliot Juliet Stevenson Naxos AudioBooks Books Reviews
If you don't like long (807 pg) Victorian (read slow paced, richly psychological) novels, I suggest looking into more contemporary works. If you like Victorian works, you'll probably find that the length here is nothing because you'll become absorbed in the richness of the characters, Eliot's incredible writing (she wrote this with an excruciating toothache, too), and unique plot. Understanding the controversy surrounding this novel adds to the understanding of its beauty as well. I definitely recommend this, although I do understand that it's not for everyone.
Victorian novels are not to everyone's taste with a very leisurely pace, lots of extraneous characters and scenes and endless social interaction, but if you have the patience this is a great book with a couple of great characters, an interesting plot, an author with a great eye for detail, and an eye opening treatment of the place of women and Jews in mid-nineteenth century England. Probably the best defense of Zionism in all of literature and many years before the horrors of Europe's efforts to exterminate the Jews a compelling argument for a Jewish state in the Jews' historical homeland.
Don't buy this horrible book, or maybe I should say "book". It is a cheap, unreadable digitized version of an 1876 edition. At 11 lines of text per inch, the blurry 6 point type is too densely packed to be read comfortably without a magnifying glass. Some of the pages came out printed at a slant. BiblioLife must know what a poor product this is. If you had the book in front of you and could look at the pages you would never buy it. Of course when you see it online it looks like a normal book. In reality it is useless.
Elliot writes a long, slow-moving drama of character study, tragic marriage, Judaism, family misfortunes with themes of women's liberation and subjection, and personal identity.
The novel has two separate stories joined together by Daniel Deronda. Each of them features a compelling woman who is involved with Daniel.
I found this much less compelling than Middlemarch, and horribly slow. Most novels this static I would have put down, but this is Elliot and her characters are very well drawn.
The novel highlights the repression of women in Victorian society - both of Gwendolen, and Daniel's mother who rebelled. And Mirah herself has been used like a puppet by her father.
I'm glad I read it. But it took some time.
This is a sleeper of a classic in my opinion. Anyone into classics should give it a read. Of course there are references that you either have to overlook or look up, that have to do with things that were popular at the time. Its Elliot's contemporary novel, her others were set in the past. Her breadth of vocabulary alone takes your breath away, as well as her writing ability and style. I learned more new words in Daniel Deronda than I've learned reading any other single book in the last 10 years. This is really a psychological, philosophical and even political novel, with intense and indelible characters whose inner lives are brought to vivid life. Every character is intricately developed, in all their complexity and contradictions. What I particularly love is author's ability to capture the maturation process, the growth of the characters over the course of events and time. She reveals how even one conversation with a person can cause a change in an individual.
"Daniel Deronda" was the last novel George Eliot wrote, and it's an appropriate finale to her career -- a lushly-written, heartfelt story about a young man searching for his past (and clues to his future), as well as a vibrant strong-willed young lady who discovers that life doesn't always go your way. Even better, Eliot deftly avoided the cliches and caricatures of the Jewish people, portraying them with love and respect.
Daniel Deronda is the ward (and rumored illegitimate son) of a nobleman, who is unsure of his past (particularly of his mother) catching a glimpse of pretty, reckless, arrogant Gwendolyn Harleth at a casino. Gwendolyn (who boasts that she gets everything she wants) is interested in Daniel, but when her family loses all their money, she marries a rich suitor, a relative of Daniel's -- knowing that his mistress and illegitimate children will be disinherited. But she soon finds that her new husband is a sadistic brute, and sees Daniel as her only help.
Meanwhile, Daniel rescues the despairing Mirah Lapidoth from a suicide attempt in the river, and he helps the young Jewish singer find a home and friends to care for her. As he helps her find her family, he becomes passionately attached to the Jewish population and their plight, embodied by a dying young visionary and a kindly shopkeeping family. Then he receives an important message -- one that will illuminate his roots, and give him a course for the future.
When Eliot published her final novel, it caused a massive stir -- not many novelists tackled the plight of the Jewish population, or how it compared to the gilded upper classes. In a way, "Daniel Deronda" is both a love triangle and an allegory -- Daniel must choose between the pretty, shallow English life (Gwendolyn) or a rich Jewish heritage (Mirah) with a background of tragedy.
The biggest problem with Eliot's writing is that it becomes a little too lush and dense at times, and the narrative moves a bit slowly (in the Victorian manner). But that flaw doesn't rob her writing of its power or beauty -- she describes every feeling, gesture and emotion in detail, as well as the sumptuous balls, exquisitely gilded mansions, and every shadowy tree or rich expanse of land ("a grassy court enclosed on three sides by a gothic cloister").
Yet the greatest power is in the stories that twine like ivy over the main plot -- a young Jewish girl's search for her family, a sadistic man's search for a wild lovely girl he can break, and especially of the composer Herr Klesmer and his sweet, atypical love story with Miss Arrowpoint. And the last quarter of the book is wrapped in Daniel's search for his own family, culminating in a quietly tense encounter with someone from his long-ago past.
Daniel almost seems like a character too good to be true -- unselfish, kind, universally kindly and very intelligent, though possessed of a vaguely searching quality. Gwendolyn is his complete opposite she has been raised to be selfish, disdainful and immature, but as the book goes on she learns that selfishness doesn't pay -- marriage to the despicable Grandcourt changes her from a selfish little girl into a scarred but stronger woman.
The third leg of the triangle is Mirah, who is not given the loving attention that Gwendolyn is, but who is still a compelling figure -- her father tried to sell her, and now she wanders through England searching for her family. And the book is littered with many other striking characters the sadistic Grandcourt and his creepy servant Lush, the crotchety but kindly Klesmer, the spirited artist Hans, the kindly Sir Hugo and the doomed, strong-willed Mordecai.
"Daniel Deronda" is a beautiful portrait of a young man's search for his past, and a young woman's struggle with the fruits of her own selfishness. What's more, George Eliot's last novel is a loving, powerful portrait of the Jewish people, in a time when they were caricatured at best.
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