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#46 | |
Professor of Law
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I am really struggling with Deronda as a character. He just feels like a Mary Sue / Marty Stu to me. For those unfamiliar with the concept, this is a good history in Smithsonian Magazine:
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I would have been far more interested in the novel if it focused on (and found a plausible way to intertwine) Gwendolyn and Mirah's stories. |
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#47 | |
Now what?
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*snip*
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I get the impression that Eliot has set them up as stark contrasts of two beautiful women in the marriage market - light/dark, showy/talented, vain/sincere, etc. Both dazzle men with their beauty, and make choices that revolve around how they are perceived by the male gaze. |
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#48 |
¿Huh?
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What are these, poohbear, I searched and found nothing.
It would be impossible for me to rely on the audio only because for one thing the long descriptive phrases put me to sleep (literally). But when I go back and read I find myself highlighting frequently, e.g. "dregs with struggling flies in them." "...wind was turning up the feathers of a cock..." "ill-plenished". Am also surprised by how much I missed in the audio. If I had not joined the club and found everyone's comments so interesting, causing a rethink of my initial urge to drop DD for something more to my liking. Especially 'slogged' through Mirah chapters, but found Chapter XXIII (Klesmer and Gwendolen) engrossing. I will finish the book if only because I so admire Eliot's vocabulary and not infrequent flashes of insight. |
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#49 | |
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#50 | |
Professor of Law
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#51 |
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Gwendolyn is a Trollope heroine suddenly thrust into a Dickensian plot.
I wonder if Mirah will traverse a reverse course from a dark beginning on the stage to the possibility of rescue through marriage. |
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#52 |
Professor of Law
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#53 |
(he/him/his)
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#54 | |
languorous autodidact ✦
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#55 |
Snoozing in the sun
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On the other hand, as the Finnish composer Sibelius said, "A statue has never been set up in honour of a critic".
I'm not very far in yet, but I would tend to back George Eliot's judgement of the way she designed her novel, rather than to fall in with Leavis's ideas of how the book could be improved. But then, I do have a poor opinion of Leavis! |
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#56 |
Now what?
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As I progress into the novel (60% or thereabouts) I'm having real trouble with the Deronda/Mordecai subplot - chapter XLII is a ponderous intrusion that I can't imagine anyone could narrate, let alone listen to, or barely read. Mordecai's obsession with Deronda is so completely separate from Deronda's interaction with the Gwendolyn or Mirah plotline, that is does read for me as a completely separate artificial narrative, contrived to inject as much Jewish lore and history and idealism into the novel as possible.
I'm leaning toward Leavis - expunging the Mordecai character would still leave Mirah, and the search for her family, and her interaction with Deronda and his world (and his search for his family), as a much more readable plot that could still showcase the Jewish experience in England, and contrast the life, choices, and opportunities of a Jewish woman against that of the English Gwendolyn. This would produce a novel with 2 intertwining plot lines (Mirah and Gwendolyn) where Deronda would provide the contact point between the two separate worlds, and his reflections/reactions would provide the reader with insights into the life experiences of the two very different women. Last edited by poohbear_nc; 05-19-2021 at 10:42 AM. |
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#57 |
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#58 |
Now what?
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From this source: "Daniel Deronda was first published from February through September of 1876, in monthly installments of approximately 110 pages each. Victorian readers enjoyed and absorbed the novel one portion at a time, discussing the story’s gradual unfolding with friends and family and anticipating the turns each new installment would take. Eliot’s original installments will naturally form the framework of these serial readings." |
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#59 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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Thank you, poohbear!
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#60 | ||
languorous autodidact ✦
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Rarely does an opening epigraph produce any effect on my feeling of a novel going in. Usually epigraphs are so vague, broad or cryptic that they don’t make an impression on me at all, or at least until looking back after reading the book. Here though is one with real bite to it. |
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