Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Questions from Penguin Random House

1. Examine George Eliot’s first epigraph, which begins, “Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul.” Why do you think the author chose to set her story in motion with this poetic warning?

2. Summarize the two intersecting story lines represented by Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda. The prominent critic F. R. Leavis suggested that Daniel Deronda would be vastly improved by removing the Jewish story line, leaving Gwendolen Harleth’s story to stand on its own. Do you agree that this literary surgery would have been an improvement? What would be lost if Eliot had chosen to shape the novel in this fashion?

3. Consider how the principal characters in the novel – the Mallingers, the Meyricks, Gwendolen, Grandcourt, Mirah, and Mordecai – view Daniel Deronda. Does it contrast with the way he views himself? How do his self-image and his aspirations change over the course of the novel?

4. Speaking through a fictional character in an 1876 piece he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly, Henry James noted that “Gwendolen Harleth is a masterpiece. She is known, felt, and presented, psychologically, altogether in the grand manner. Beside her and beside her husband – a consummate picture of English brutality refined and distilled (for Grandcourt is before all things brutal) – Deronda, Mordecai, and Mirah are hardly more than shadows.” Do you agree with his assessment?

5. Daniel Deronda’s mother, the Princess Halm-Eberstein, tells her son, “You are not a woman. You may try—but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl.” Consider the female characters in the novel, including Gwendolen, Mrs. Glasher, Mirah, and the princess. What is their place in Victorian society, and how do they deal with their limited options? What gives Catherine Arrowpoint the strength to defy her parents and marry Herr Klesmer?

6. In an 1876 letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot wrote, “As to the Jewish element in Deronda . . . precisely because I felt that the usual attitude of Christians towards Jews is—I hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid when viewed in the light of their professed principles, I therefore felt urged to treat Jews with such sympathy and understanding as my nature and knowledge could attain to.” How would you characterize Eliot’s Victorian depiction of Jewish people and their cultural and religious heritage?

7. Throughout the novel, how does Eliot explore the themes of social class, power, and respectability?

8. On his wedding day, Daniel receives a letter from Gwendolen that repeats her emotional claim: “It is better—it shall be better with me because I have known you.” Do you think this is true? How would you describe the complex relationship between Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda?

I have just arrived at this line and had to write it down:
Regarding Gwendolen: "She had no gratuitously ill-natured feeling, or egoistic pleasure in making men miserable. She only had an intense objection to their making her miserable.

Love this :) What a "Spoiled Child" she is.


Gail wrote: "I have just arrived at this line and had to write it down:
Regarding Gwendolen: "She had no gratuitously ill-natured feeling, or egoistic pleasure in making men miserable. She only had an intense o..."

Yes, I agree she is incredibly spoiled.
I don't really have a handle on Mr Daniel Deronda yet either. He seems a bit of a mush right now although there is something of a good heart in there. It does seem very inconsiderate of his patron to not tell him everything he knows about his mother and father which leaves Daniel up in the air. Is he the gentleman's bastard son or a complete foundling?

I thought a lot about the critiques recommendation to drop the Jewish plot when I was reading this, because that is one of the things that so interested me (being Jewish myself and it being so rare in this age of the literature). But also Deronda as Gail says is not a real 3d character, Gwen in much better. In general I think Eliot is much better at women than men. My daughter, when she was about 2 chapters into Middlemarch sent me a text saying "I can't believe anyone ever thought George Eliot was a man. No man could have written this." And so the Gwen story steals the show all around.

1. Examine George Eliot’s first epigraph, which begins, “Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul.” Why do you think the author chose to set her story in motion with this poetic warning?

This is appropriate for this novel that focuses on the characters of Gwendolyn and of Daniel Deronda. A person's inner character is what can harm us, not that which is external.

2. Summarize the two intersecting story lines represented by Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda. The prominent critic F. R. Leavis suggested that Daniel Deronda would be vastly improved by removing the Jewish story line, leaving Gwendolen Harleth’s story to stand on its own. Do you agree that this literary surgery would have been an improvement? What would be lost if Eliot had chosen to shape the novel in this fashion?

I did not like the person of Gwendolen and I think contrasting Gwendolen with the character of Mirah was good. I liked the Jewish line. Gwendolen is very self centered person who thinks only of other people as a means to please herself. She, however, is the character that does change the most. I think the two stories could have been made to stand on their own but I don't think it would have had the same tension.

3. Consider how the principal characters in the novel – the Mallingers, the Meyricks, Gwendolen, Grandcourt, Mirah, and Mordecai – view Daniel Deronda. Does it contrast with the way he views himself? How do his self-image and his aspirations change over the course of the novel? Daniel Deronda is a man without knowledge of his origins yet he is "good" character always wanting to help others even when it is painful to do so. At times I wished he would have had more backbone so I guess I did see him as a bit mushy.

4. Speaking through a fictional character in an 1876 piece he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly, Henry James noted that “Gwendolen Harleth is a masterpiece. She is known, felt, and presented, psychologically, altogether in the grand manner. Beside her and beside her husband – a consummate picture of English brutality refined and distilled (for Grandcourt is before all things brutal) – Deronda, Mordecai, and Mirah are hardly more than shadows.” Do you agree with his assessment? I guess I would agree as both Gwendolyn and her husband are Brutish person. She should have fought back more maybe. This book is also suppose to show how limited women were by being women. Gwendolyn did have more redeeming characteristics that Grandcourt.

5. Daniel Deronda’s mother, the Princess Halm-Eberstein, tells her son, “You are not a woman. You may try—but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl.” Consider the female characters in the novel, including Gwendolen, Mrs. Glasher, Mirah, and the princess. What is their place in Victorian society, and how do they deal with their limited options? What gives Catherine Arrowpoint the strength to defy her parents and marry Herr Klesmer? Women's opportunities are limited by society. I did not agree with Daniel's mother and it certainly was cruel to tell him she didn't want him.

6. In an 1876 letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot wrote, “As to the Jewish element in Deronda . . . precisely because I felt that the usual attitude of Christians towards Jews is—I hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid when viewed in the light of their professed principles, I therefore felt urged to treat Jews with such sympathy and understanding as my nature and knowledge could attain to.” How would you characterize Eliot’s Victorian depiction of Jewish people and their cultural and religious heritage?
Eliot's understanding of Christianity and Judism helped with the story line. She did depict Jewish people as poor and good at theater and trying to live and continue the Jewish tradition.

7. Throughout the novel, how does Eliot explore the themes of social class, power, and respectability?

8. On his wedding day, Daniel receives a letter from Gwendolen that repeats her emotional claim: “It is better—it shall be better with me because I have known you.” Do you think this is true? How would you describe the complex relationship between Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda?

It is possibly true but what she doesn't understand is that another person cannot make our decisions. She needs to have this change in her and not externally through Daniel. She just thought Daniel was another person that was there to serve her.


This is supposedly Eliot's greatest novel. I am not sure I agree. I liked the others a bit more I think. This was too much triangulating love story for me but there was much I appreciated. So maybe the criticism by F. R. Leavis was correct.

1. Examine George Eliot’s first epigraph, which begins, “Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul.” Why do you think the author chose to set her story in motion with this poetic warning?

Huge question.
First of all, it sounds Biblical and according to the Catholic church, may even be a part of the Bible (although Protestants and Jews don't agree), and therefore sets the tone for the novel being about moral investigations rather than dramatic plot development. In addition, it addresses directly one of Eliot's major themes in which external forces are less the danger than unscrutinized forces from within. Eliot spends much of the novel investigating how the characters become accountable for their own lives after starting with the assumption that Daniel's life was determined by his mother's decision and that Gwendolen's life was totally controlled by her husband. The novel is how they become accountable for their own lives given how the world shaped their circumstances.

2. Summarize the two intersecting story lines represented by Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda. The prominent critic F. R. Leavis suggested that Daniel Deronda would be vastly improved by removing the Jewish story line, leaving Gwendolen Harleth’s story to stand on its own. Do you agree that this literary surgery would have been an improvement? What would be lost if Eliot had chosen to shape the novel in this fashion?

We meet Gwendolen as a spoiled child hungry for recognition and excitement and only too aware of the force of her "presence" on the men around her. She believes that she has more societal power by virtue of her beauty and her wit than society actually granted women of that era. She must confront her own decisions and her very constrained place in the world and somehow carry on. Daniel is a bit of a nobody although Eliot makes clear he is very intelligent and very handsome. He is unable to direct his powers toward anything tangible but instead longs for a meaningful life of helping people. Yet this "help" is always directed to individuals rather than any larger scale. He has been raised to be a "English Gentleman" and he carries his caste and his fortune in his very being. He must evolve to the point of knowing himself, including his origins, better and then directing his energies more specifically.
To take Deronda out of Gwendolen's story would leave the novel too thin I think. One does not really care for Gwendolen so it is important to have other characters that are more appealing.

3. Consider how the principal characters in the novel – the Mallingers, the Meyricks, Gwendolen, Grandcourt, Mirah, and Mordecai – view Daniel Deronda. Does it contrast with the way he views himself? How do his self-image and his aspirations change over the course of the novel?
As stated in #2, Daniel is very much what he has been raised to be, an English Gentleman with an English Gentleman's sensibility and sense of self. However, his deep desire to intuitively understand people makes him someone that others see as insightful and helpful. The Mallingers come to think of him as their son, to a certain extent, and Sir Hugh depends on him a great deal. Gwendolen, the Meyricks, Mirah and Mordecai all view him as a protector, the one chosen. Only Grandcourt sneers at Deronda, assuming that he is a bastard son and doesn't know his place in the world and certainly would not think of turning to him for assistance. Deronda, until he meets Mordecai and his mother, views himself as a bit lost and armors himself with his protection of others and his sense of being a gentleman.

4. Speaking through a fictional character in an 1876 piece he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly, Henry James noted that “Gwendolen Harleth is a masterpiece. She is known, felt, and presented, psychologically, altogether in the grand manner. Beside her and beside her husband – a consummate picture of English brutality refined and distilled (for Grandcourt is before all things brutal) – Deronda, Mordecai, and Mirah are hardly more than shadows.” Do you agree with his assessment?

No, I do think that Gwendolen by about half way through the novel begins to take on a more rounded aspect for the reader. However, I am not sure that she alone would carry a novel and have it be a masterpiece. I actually marveled at how well Grandcourt's inner processes were presented by the author as I often thought: "he is going to do this" and he would not and Eliot would tell us why. However, the others are not mere shadows. They may not be as well rounded in our being able to see all aspects of their character but I think the novel would have sunk under the horror of Gwendolen's narrow minded thinking process.

5. Daniel Deronda’s mother, the Princess Halm-Eberstein, tells her son, “You are not a woman. You may try—but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl.” Consider the female characters in the novel, including Gwendolen, Mrs. Glasher, Mirah, and the princess. What is their place in Victorian society, and how do they deal with their limited options? What gives Catherine Arrowpoint the strength to defy her parents and marry Herr Klesmer?

I thought it was interesting that Eliot presented Daniel's mother as a cold hearted, steely eyed women, as a way of saying that that is what it would take to stand up for yourself in both Victorian society and in Jewish culture. Yet, Princess Halm-Eberstein also succumbs to the society's rules and remarries and has children. So all her coldness does not grant her a life that she felt was hers by right.
Catherine Arrowpoint wins her point by ultimately knowing that her parents would rather have her marry Klesmer than have her depressed or dead. She also can win this point only because she is an only child and therefore heir to her own fortune.

6. In an 1876 letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot wrote, “As to the Jewish element in Deronda . . . precisely because I felt that the usual attitude of Christians towards Jews is—I hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid when viewed in the light of their professed principles, I therefore felt urged to treat Jews with such sympathy and understanding as my nature and knowledge could attain to.” How would you characterize Eliot’s Victorian depiction of Jewish people and their cultural and religious heritage?

Obviously, Eliot's depiction suffers from Eliot not being Jewish and not having a great deal of insight into a substantially different culture. The era alone, and its assumptions about Jewish people, is clearly articulated especially in her drawing out how Hans thought of Mirah as having a "superstition" rather than a religion and in how the Cohen family was presented. All the stereotypes are there. Eliot also shows Sir Mallinger's slight distaste really well. However, for the times and given the fact that she was not Jewish it is quite a tour de force to have so much of her novel depend on the religiously driven moral questions. The fact that Mordecai and Mirah take their father in was particularly interesting.

7. Throughout the novel, how does Eliot explore the themes of social class, power, and respectability?

Both Gwendolen and Daniel must confront exactly what their class, their fortune (or lack of) and their respectability depend on. Daniel gets off easier as a male and as a male with money. However, they both need to make decisions about balancing their personal needs against societal pressures.

8. On his wedding day, Daniel receives a letter from Gwendolen that repeats her emotional claim: “It is better—it shall be better with me because I have known you.” Do you think this is true? How would you describe the complex relationship between Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda?

Yes, I think the fact that Gwendolen can even articulate that she will continue to live (to her mother) is thanks largely to Daniel articulating that she could be a force of good in the world. Daniel did give her the strength to face a life that she truly believed was a terror as the result of her wrong choices. She aspires to be a better person because he believed in her.
Gwendolen and Daniel's relationship is one of a bit of co-dependence. Gwendolen needs him to see her and all her wretched mistakes both in reality and in her own mind. She assumes that he is there to support her. He is the only one she can talk to about everything. Daniel needs to be seen by her (and others) as the protector. He loves Gwendolen's beauty and her spirit but never really loves her.

1. Examine George Eliot’s first epigraph, which begins, “Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul.” Why do you think the author chose to set her story in motion with this poetic warning?
My first thought on reading it was that a character was going to get away with some crime or immoral act, but their conscience not let them alone. When I was halfway through, I assumed it referred to Gwendolen and, now that I’m finished, I still think it’s about her. As Gail notes, it can also describe a significant shift in Daniel, whose early life and character were determined by forces outside of himself.

2. Summarize the two intersecting story lines represented by Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda. The prominent critic F. R. Leavis suggested that Daniel Deronda would be vastly improved by removing the Jewish story line, leaving Gwendolen Harleth’s story to stand on its own. Do you agree that this literary surgery would have been an improvement? What would be lost if Eliot had chosen to shape the novel in this fashion?
The introduction to the Penguin edition points out that 50 years prior to Leavis’s essay, a Jewish critic made the opposite argument, claiming that the “Gentile” portions “have almost nothing to do with its main theme and basic idea.” If one were to excise them, “the story would lack almost nothing.” Fascinating!

Regardless, I could not agree more that the book would benefit from removing the Jewish storyline. Chapter 31, for example, ends with Gwendolen shrieking on the floor with the diamonds scattered around her, and the next several chapters take us away from this to hear all about Daniel’s personality and his first visit to a synagogue. I’m sorry but I would rather have stuck with Gwendolen, who I found fascinating – a deeply flawed character, but one with spirit and intelligence and a rudimentary sense of morality (see below re: her instinctive responses to Daniel and Mrs. Glasher). As others have said, Daniel comes across as shallow compared to her; despite GE’s efforts to round him out with inner conflicts, he always comes across as a saint.

As Gail says, the book might have been a little thin without this thread, but it would have left GE room to explore the gender angle in greater depth.

3. Consider how the principal characters in the novel – the Mallingers, the Meyricks, Gwendolen, Grandcourt, Mirah, and Mordecai – view Daniel Deronda. Does it contrast with the way he views himself? How do his self-image and his aspirations change over the course of the novel?
The Mallingers and Meyricks all dote upon him. Grandcourt’s description of him to Gwendolen is something like, he’s of no importance because he has no claim on title, money, lands, etc. (which is SO Grandcourt) Gwendolen almost instinctively takes him to be a kind of moral compass and later a spiritual savoir. He is also a savoir to Mirah and Mordecai. Most characters only think about what he can be for them. Hans is the worst in this regard, but he’s not alone. Mordecai just wants a healthy and attractive mouthpiece for his views.

4. Speaking through a fictional character in an 1876 piece he wrote for The Atlantic Monthly, Henry James noted that “Gwendolen Harleth is a masterpiece. She is known, felt, and presented, psychologically, altogether in the grand manner. Beside her and beside her husband – a consummate picture of English brutality refined and distilled (for Grandcourt is before all things brutal) – Deronda, Mordecai, and Mirah are hardly more than shadows.” Do you agree with his assessment?
Yes (see question #2 above). I think GE is trying to make Deronda interesting by explaining his complex personality, but I just found him boring.

5. Daniel Deronda’s mother, the Princess Halm-Eberstein, tells her son, “You are not a woman. You may try—but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl.” Consider the female characters in the novel, including Gwendolen, Mrs. Glasher, Mirah, and the princess. What is their place in Victorian society, and how do they deal with their limited options? What gives Catherine Arrowpoint the strength to defy her parents and marry Herr Klesmer?
Gwendolen literally has no options in life other than working in a profession she is ill-suited and not trained for, or marrying a cruel man and, in doing so, going against her conscience. She is, as we are told, a spoiled child. But when she learns about Mrs. Glasher, she recognizes that marrying Grandcourt would be wrong. While all women were not at the mercy of cruel men, they were all subject to men in general. Mrs. Glasher escapes her marriage only to become a kind of prisoner to Grandcourt’s whims, dependent on him for her income and hoping he will eventually marry her. The Princess escapes her father and is briefly able to have a career, but when her voice fails her, she also must choose marriage rather than risk poverty. Mirah is a prisoner of her father and then becomes a slave to her brother (who preaches to her about the role of women in a manner I imagine is akin to the way the Princess’s father preached to her). Even the apparently kindly Uncle Gascoigne advises Gwendolen that it is her duty to make the best possible marriage.

Catherine is in love with Klesmer and willing to risk her inheritance to marry him. It’s not clear to me where this courage came from. Maybe Klesmer makes enough money to support them in a sufficient fashion. The more pertinent question seems to be, why did her parents not disown her, as they threatened to do. She is an only child so that might have helped convince them. And perhaps Klesmer’s artistic reputation didn’t hurt.

6. In an 1876 letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot wrote, “As to the Jewish element in Deronda . . . precisely because I felt that the usual attitude of Christians towards Jews is—I hardly know whether to say more impious or more stupid when viewed in the light of their professed principles, I therefore felt urged to treat Jews with such sympathy and understanding as my nature and knowledge could attain to.” How would you characterize Eliot’s Victorian depiction of Jewish people and their cultural and religious heritage?
Although she claims to want to depict Jews with sympathy and understanding, she perpetuates a lot of stereotypes, especially about working-class Jews like the Cohens.

7. Throughout the novel, how does Eliot explore the themes of social class, power, and respectability?
When Gwendolen’s family loses all their money, she has two options: work as a governess for a Bishop’s family (a fate akin to death for her) or go against her instinct and conscience and marry a man she doesn’t love. Although she has been “educated” in a manner deemed proper for a lady of her class, she has no skills that would allow her to make any money while retaining her self-respect. One of Klesmer’s primary functions in the book is to point this out: she has been trained enough to make her attractive as a potential wife but not to make her capable to take on any public role (as actress, singer, and by extension anything). For his part, Grandcourt, who is despised by his own family, is set to inherit a ton of lands and titles, simply because he is the sole remaining male heir. Sir Hugo loves Daniel and relies on him like a son, but he cannot make him his heir due to archaic rules.

8. On his wedding day, Daniel receives a letter from Gwendolen that repeats her emotional claim: “It is better—it shall be better with me because I have known you.” Do you think this is true? How would you describe the complex relationship between Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda?
From the moment she sees him, Gwendolen yearns for Daniel’s approval, maybe because he is one of the few men who doesn’t respond immediately to her looks and actually disapproves of her behavior. I think that Gwendolen loves him, if not at first sight, then by the end of their acquaintance. As Daniel himself realizes, he might have married her if he had not met Mirah and if his true heritage had not been revealed to him. It seems likely that Gwendolen will “behave” herself for the rest of her life, having endured such trials and finally escaped an abusive husband. Having said that, I’m not crazy about the fact that Gwendolen is both punished and reformed, whereas the meek and traditional Mirah is rewarded.