Daniel Deronda was George Eliot’s final novel. Serialized in eight parts from February to September 1876, it was the only one set in the Victorian society of her day. In it, Eliot entwines two stories: that of Gwendolen Harleth, a beautiful and self-centered gamestress in need of a wealthy husband, and that of Daniel Deronda, a highly sensitive soul raised as an English gentleman, whose search for a meaningful vocation ultimately leads him to embracing Judaism and the Zionist cause. The novel’s mixture of realistic social satire and fabulistic moral searching – the “English” versus the “Jewish” part – caused contemporary readers and subsequent critics confusion and irritation, but George Eliot herself stated that she “meant everything in the book to be related to everything else there.”

We’ll explore the themes and tropes that bring together the strands of Eliot’s radical dual narrative. These include Eliot’s use of art, theater, and music to convey character, as well as her extraordinary critique of patriarchal power, sexuality, guilt, and the fundamental horror of Victorian marriages.

I offer short lectures and powerpoint presentations, but most of the class is discussion.