Audiobook · read by volunteers
Daniel Deronda
George Eliot (1819–1880)
Read by Becky Miller · 70 chapters · 31 h 48
About the book
Two lives, linked by chance, move through the English upper classes of the nineteenth century. Gwendolen Harleth is young, beautiful and used to having her own way; when circumstances force her into a marriage she does not truly want, she learns what that choice will cost her. Daniel Deronda, the adopted ward of an English aristocrat, is thoughtful and generous, uncertain of his own origins, and drawn into the world of a Jewish philosopher, Mordecai, and his gentle sister Mirah. George Eliot's last novel is ambitious and demanding, a study of conscience and identity, of selfishness and its slow transformation into wider sympathy. Seventy chapters and nearly thirty-two hours make this a major commitment, and one of the richest in the Victorian novel.
Introduction
George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, who lived from 1819 to 1880. She chose a male name to be taken seriously as a novelist, and she became one of the leading writers of the Victorian period, with novels such as Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Silas Marner. Daniel Deronda, completed in 1876, was her last.
The book has two interwoven stories. One follows Gwendolen, one of Eliot's finest creations, who grows from a self-centred young beauty into a more thoughtful adult with a wider view of the world. The other follows Daniel, who becomes interested in Jewish traditions and history. At a time when sympathetic portrayals of Jewish characters were rare in English fiction, Eliot treated the subject with unusual seriousness, and the novel has been much discussed ever since, both for its ideals and for the questions it raises. Eliot's style is notable for its analytical intelligence and its moral breadth. She comments on her characters, explains their feelings, and asks what we owe one another. Her sentences reward patience.
This LibriVox recording is divided into seventy chapters and lasts almost thirty-two hours, read by a group of volunteers. Why listen now? Because this is a novel for the long haul, the kind that grows on you. It repays attention with a deep portrait of human motives, and it is ideal for a listener who wants a big book to live with for weeks.
Public domain
George Eliot died in 1880: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text