‘Is he a man she would be happy with? – was a question that inevitably arose in the mother’s mind.
Even her mother is less than convinced with the idea at first: A recently arrived gentleman, Mallinger Grandcourt, becomes another of her admirers, and while Gwendolen initially rebuffs his advances, a change in her family’s fortunes leads her to accept his proposal. As the reader prepares for their formal introduction, tragedy strikes, and Harleth is forced to rush back to England (but not before Deronda is able to do her a small service anonymously, one which has the effect of connecting their fates somewhat).Īt this point, the novel takes us back in time, and we accompany Gwendolen and her family as they make a move to the country, settling in a new neighbourhood where the young woman soon makes several conquests. Running to more than eight-hundred pages, it was originally published in eight monthly installments in 1876, and being set merely a decade earlier, the book aroused great excitement, especially after the success of Middlemarch.Įliot begins with a dramatic scene in a gaming room on the continent, with statuesque beauty Gwendolen Harleth enjoying her moment as the centre of attention – until, that is, she notices the dark eyes of an unknown gentleman on her, those of the titular Mr. Looking for something meaty to while away the last weeks of the reading year, I decided to take that as a sign and… read another of Eliot’s novels instead – let’s see how I went 😉ĭaniel Deronda, Eliot’s final novel, is, on the face of it, another of her substantial English novels. With most of the usual suspects there or thereabouts (no Joyce, of course), the clear choice of the respondents for the cream of the crop was George Eliot’s Middlemarch, truly a novel for grown-ups. Last month, a list appeared with views of literary critics from outside the UK on the best British novel ever.
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