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A review by frohrbach
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
If the book were “Gwendolen” I think I would have liked it more.
“She has the charm and those who feared her were also fond of her. The fear and fondness being perhaps both heightened by what may be called the iridescence of her character”
Book I, Chapter IV
If Rex and Gwen and ended up together, I think I would’ve liked the book more.
“It was all morning to then within and without”
Book 1, Chapter V
Creation of Mr. Grandcourt - 10/10
700 pages of mostly drudgery was almost worth it just for the Grandcourt and Gwendolen showdowns
“It was not possible for a human aspect to be freer from grimace or solicitous wriggling. Also it was not possible for a breathing man wide awake to look less animated [buuuuurn]….
The correct Englishman, drawing himself up from his bow into rigidity, assenting se weekly, and seeking to be in a state of internal drill, suggests a suppressed vivacity, and may be suspected of letting go with some violence when he is released from parade; but Grandcourt’s bearing has no rigidity, it inclined rather to be flaccid.”
[is this another burn orrr…?]
Wisdom mic drop incoming
“Attempts at description are stupidly: who can all at once describe a human being? Even when he is presented to us we only begin that knowledge of his appearance which must be completed by innumerable impressions under differing circumstances. We recognize the alphabet; we are not sure if the language.”
Okay, touché Master Eliot. Flexing her literary powers here. But also a bit ironic because in the 700 pages of this book, the descriptions of people that you can’t really know from mere descriptions, were NOT one of the things that tired me. In fact, I wished she had spent more time describing people and their behaviors under differing circumstances, and less time talking about Zionism and whatever else it is she talked about for 90% of the book that I have successfully already forgotten about because it was so boring.
But this musing piece is A+, reminds me of Tolstoy, reminds me why I read this book in the first place, Eliot is still a G.O.A.T even if this book isn’t.
Gwendolen is an interesting hero but she’s surrounded by boring men. If she were a 20 or 21st century gal, she would have slayed and not even bothered to give any of the characters in this book the time of day.
“I do not pretend to genius. I only supposed I might have a little talent.”
Klesmer is a prune.
Mrs Glasher is pretty legit too. Would this book be better if there were like no screen time for the male characters? Probably.
“These diamonds, which were once given with ardent love to Lydia Glasher, she passes on to you. You have broken your word to her, that you might possess what was hers. Perhaps you think of being happy, as she once was, and of having beautiful children such as hers, who will thrust hers aside. God is too just for that. The man you have married has a withered heart. His best young love was mine. You could not take that from me when you took the rest. It is dead; but I am the grave in which your chance of happiness is buried as well as mine. You had your warning. You have chosen to injure me and my children. You will have your punishment. I desire it with all my soul.
You took him with your eyes open. The willing wrong you have done me will be your curse.”
Dang. I would’ve screamed and gone into hysterics too. A friend of mine has been getting into Shintoism recently, and after each lost board game or disparaging comment, yells out “I curse you” and it’s enough to make me jump. But still less potent than Mrs Glasher’s curse!
Mrs Meyrick was cliche and too sentimental - but good for Mother’s Day quotes
“A mother hears something like a childish lisp in her children’s talk to the very last. Their words are not just what everybody else says, though they may be spelt the same. If I were to live until my son got old, I should still see the boy in him. A mother’s love, I often say, is like a tree that has got all the wood in it from the very first it made.”
Book IV, Chapter XXXII
Daniel - didn’t understand him not even by the end. Who is this guy? What’s his angle? Is he kind of lame??? Is he a saint? No one knows
“Much of our lives is spent in marring our own influence and turning others’ belief of us into a widely concluding unbeliever which they call knowledge of the world, while it is really disappointment in you and me.”
So what to make of it? This was difficult to read and I think of myself proudly as a George Eliot fan. I watched the BBC early 2000s version of this as a kid and was in love with Gwendolen and Daniel Deronda, terrified of Grandcourt, and confused why Daniel married boring Mirah at the end. But reading this was a very different and less rewarding experience in some ways. I’m not entirely sure why that is. I don’t think I fully understood what Eliot wanted to say about Daniel Deronda. But the ambiguity about his true feelings for Gwendolen added a little unexpected spice to the end of a drudgingly boring 700 page-too-long book. So what can I do, end with another quote.
“In the checkered area of human experience the seasons are all mingled as in the golden age: fruit and blossom hang together; in the same moment the sickle is reaping and the seed is sprinkled. One tends the green cluster and another treads the wine press. In each of our lives harvest and springtime are continually one, until Death himself gathers us and sows us anew in his invisible fields.”
“She has the charm and those who feared her were also fond of her. The fear and fondness being perhaps both heightened by what may be called the iridescence of her character”
Book I, Chapter IV
If Rex and Gwen and ended up together, I think I would’ve liked the book more.
“It was all morning to then within and without”
Book 1, Chapter V
Creation of Mr. Grandcourt - 10/10
700 pages of mostly drudgery was almost worth it just for the Grandcourt and Gwendolen showdowns
“It was not possible for a human aspect to be freer from grimace or solicitous wriggling. Also it was not possible for a breathing man wide awake to look less animated [buuuuurn]….
The correct Englishman, drawing himself up from his bow into rigidity, assenting se weekly, and seeking to be in a state of internal drill, suggests a suppressed vivacity, and may be suspected of letting go with some violence when he is released from parade; but Grandcourt’s bearing has no rigidity, it inclined rather to be flaccid.”
[is this another burn orrr…?]
Wisdom mic drop incoming
“Attempts at description are stupidly: who can all at once describe a human being? Even when he is presented to us we only begin that knowledge of his appearance which must be completed by innumerable impressions under differing circumstances. We recognize the alphabet; we are not sure if the language.”
Okay, touché Master Eliot. Flexing her literary powers here. But also a bit ironic because in the 700 pages of this book, the descriptions of people that you can’t really know from mere descriptions, were NOT one of the things that tired me. In fact, I wished she had spent more time describing people and their behaviors under differing circumstances, and less time talking about Zionism and whatever else it is she talked about for 90% of the book that I have successfully already forgotten about because it was so boring.
But this musing piece is A+, reminds me of Tolstoy, reminds me why I read this book in the first place, Eliot is still a G.O.A.T even if this book isn’t.
Gwendolen is an interesting hero but she’s surrounded by boring men. If she were a 20 or 21st century gal, she would have slayed and not even bothered to give any of the characters in this book the time of day.
“I do not pretend to genius. I only supposed I might have a little talent.”
Klesmer is a prune.
Mrs Glasher is pretty legit too. Would this book be better if there were like no screen time for the male characters? Probably.
“These diamonds, which were once given with ardent love to Lydia Glasher, she passes on to you. You have broken your word to her, that you might possess what was hers. Perhaps you think of being happy, as she once was, and of having beautiful children such as hers, who will thrust hers aside. God is too just for that. The man you have married has a withered heart. His best young love was mine. You could not take that from me when you took the rest. It is dead; but I am the grave in which your chance of happiness is buried as well as mine. You had your warning. You have chosen to injure me and my children. You will have your punishment. I desire it with all my soul.
You took him with your eyes open. The willing wrong you have done me will be your curse.”
Dang. I would’ve screamed and gone into hysterics too. A friend of mine has been getting into Shintoism recently, and after each lost board game or disparaging comment, yells out “I curse you” and it’s enough to make me jump. But still less potent than Mrs Glasher’s curse!
Mrs Meyrick was cliche and too sentimental - but good for Mother’s Day quotes
“A mother hears something like a childish lisp in her children’s talk to the very last. Their words are not just what everybody else says, though they may be spelt the same. If I were to live until my son got old, I should still see the boy in him. A mother’s love, I often say, is like a tree that has got all the wood in it from the very first it made.”
Book IV, Chapter XXXII
Daniel - didn’t understand him not even by the end. Who is this guy? What’s his angle? Is he kind of lame??? Is he a saint? No one knows
“Much of our lives is spent in marring our own influence and turning others’ belief of us into a widely concluding unbeliever which they call knowledge of the world, while it is really disappointment in you and me.”
So what to make of it? This was difficult to read and I think of myself proudly as a George Eliot fan. I watched the BBC early 2000s version of this as a kid and was in love with Gwendolen and Daniel Deronda, terrified of Grandcourt, and confused why Daniel married boring Mirah at the end. But reading this was a very different and less rewarding experience in some ways. I’m not entirely sure why that is. I don’t think I fully understood what Eliot wanted to say about Daniel Deronda. But the ambiguity about his true feelings for Gwendolen added a little unexpected spice to the end of a drudgingly boring 700 page-too-long book. So what can I do, end with another quote.
“In the checkered area of human experience the seasons are all mingled as in the golden age: fruit and blossom hang together; in the same moment the sickle is reaping and the seed is sprinkled. One tends the green cluster and another treads the wine press. In each of our lives harvest and springtime are continually one, until Death himself gathers us and sows us anew in his invisible fields.”