Book Review: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Daniel Deronda (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) by George Eliot

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Eliot, George. Daniel Deronda. New York. Harper & Row Publishers,1878.





The book Daniel Deronda, written by George Eliot, is a story about selfishness, redemption, and Zionism. It is a social novel in that it speaks about the limited choices women had for financial independence in Victorian England. Gwendolyn, the main protagonist of the story, is a vibrant and outspoken young woman, who gambles not only at the roulette table, but also with life itself. She frequents a Parisian casinos where she gambles. It is here that she meets with the English gentleman Daniel Deronda. Daniel, while rowing down the river Thames, saves a woman, Mirah’s, life, when he finds her trying to drown herself. Mirah, he discovers, is a Jewess and singer and he makes it his mission to help her become happier. In the meanwhile, when Gwendolyn’s parents become ruined, her mother informs her of a position at the home of a bishop where she could work as a governess. She obstinately refuses believing working as governess would be far too demoralizing. Gwendolyn would prefer to marry a man she does not love, the cold aristocrat Henleigh Grandcourt, than work as a governess. As her life with Henliegh Grandcourt becomes daily more and more unbearable, she begins to seek the friendship of Daniel Deronda. In the meanwhile, Daniel, discovering that he is a Jew by birth, marries Mirah and decides to work for a Jewish unified state. Henliegh Grandcourt drowns in a boating accident in Genoa. Gwendolyn is finally free of her obnoxious husband. Daniel becomes an immensely positive influence on Gwendolyn’s life. Daniel tells her, “ Our happiness comes from helping others and not just thinking about us”(483). Gwendolyn resolves to put her wretched past behind her and become a more altruistic person beginning with being a good sister and daughter.



This is a very ambitious novel in which Eliot explores a myriad of human conditions. Eliot explores selfishness vs. altruism with her two characters, Gwendolyn and Daniel Deronda respectively. I like the sensitivity in which Eliot explores the racial issues of Jews living as outsiders in a homogenous society of nineteenth century England. I especially like how she uses Gwendolyn’s character to expose women‘s limited opportunities in Victorian England. Gwendolyn practically prostituted herself out to the wealthy Grandcourt and once she was married she had to live as a slave to his patriarchal rules. I believe Eliot was showing the reader society’s low estimation of women, women not having rights as far as property, education, marriage and divorce are concerned. I believe Eliot is trying to show us that many women like Gwendolyn led oppressive existences. This is a great historical novel for its social commentary and raw exposure of the shallow values, and mores of Victorian England.











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All blogs are written by Sabrina Rongstad-Bravo More Tales and Adventures in Sabrina's London Diaries

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Book Review: Dai Sije Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sijie. Dai. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Translated from the French by Ina Rilke. Anchor Books. A Division of Random House, Inc. New York. 2000.





Set during the China’s cultural revolution Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is the tale of two friends Luo and the narrator, (name never gets mentioned) who get sent to work in the coal mines for “ re-education” to the ways of Mao. It is there they become acquainted with the beautiful “Little Seamstress” and both fall in love with her. They also encounter a suitcase of the classics and get transported to the inspirational world of literature. The classic books they read give them the strength and inspiration to survive the harshness of their daily existence in their small village in communist China, where food is scarce, their clothes are lice ridden and people enjoy a an elixir of buffalo blood . Their mutual admiration for the “ Little Seamstress” gives the young men with their first taste of true love, boyish romance and fantasy. The “little seamstress” although very beautiful is just a simple, unsophisticated village girl. It is her lover Lou’s ambition to refine the “ little seamstress” by reading to her the words of Balzac. But in the end, it is the “little seamstress” that is most influenced by the power of literature as revealed when she decides to run away from the village surreptitiously. Confronted by Lou as to why she is leaving the village for the city, she explains,” that she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price.” (184).



Dai Sijie pays tribute to the power of literature to influence, transport you to other lands, give hope, nourish the mind and brain cells with intellectual food, and most importantly inspire you to be better than who you are. In Balzac and the Little Seamstress, Dai Sijie´s spins a charming tale of friendship, first love and the suffering of those that experienced communist “ re-education” . Dai Sijie in his simple and short book, has very wisely introduced the historical milieu of China in the seventies. He has done this in a very subtle and circuitous way so that the reader can readily identify with the first whisperings of love and romance and is reminded of their own first impressions of classic literature. Dai Sijie, himself a film-maker was sent for re-education between 1971 and 1974. He has made his home in France since 1984.









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