Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Hello All,
Since we do not meet in December we always choose a long read for our January meeting. This January we will be discussing Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's final novel. In their novels, both Jane Austen and George Eliot expose the social precariousness of women and the moral limits of their societies. Writing in the Regency and Victorian eras, respectively, each uses fiction to critique a culture that defines women’s worth through marriage, beauty, and social conformity. Austen’s novels reveal the economic fragility and emotional confinement of genteel women, using irony to expose the tension between moral integrity and material survival. Eliot, in Daniel Deronda, deepens this critique through two interwoven narratives—the restless Gwendolen Harleth, trapped by vanity and circumstance, and Daniel Deronda, seeking spiritual purpose beyond England’s complacent social order. Through them, Eliot extends Austen’s domestic realism into a philosophical meditation on moral responsibility and the search for meaning in a fractured society. Together, their works trace the evolution of English social critique from the drawing room to the broader moral and spiritual landscape of modernity.
Looking forward to discussing this book!