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Daniel Deronda

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Daniel Deronda

By: George Eliot
Narrated by: Nadia May
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About this listen

 One of the masterpieces of English fiction, Daniel Deronda tells the intertwined stories of two characters as they each come to discover the truth of their natures.

Gwendolen Harleth is the beautiful, high-spirited daughter of an impoverished upper-class family. In order to restore their fortunes, she unwittingly traps herself in an oppressive marriage. Humbled, she turns for solace and guidance to Daniel Deronda, the high-minded adopted son of an aristocratic Englishman. But when Deronda, who is searching for his path in life, rescues a poor Jewish girl from drowning, he discovers a world of Jewish experience previously unknown to him, and to the Victorian novel. Dismayed by the anti-Semitism around him, the tragedy of the lovely Gwendolen begins to fade for Deronda. When he finally uncovers the long-hidden secret of his own parentage, he must confront his true identity and destiny.

(P)1997 Blackstone Audio Inc. Classics Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

"Nadia May meets the strenuous demands of Eliot's narration with easy assurance." ( Library Journal)
" Daniel Deronda is a startling and unexpected novel....It is a cosmic myth, a world history, and a morality play." (A. S. Byatt)
All stars
Most relevant
Written before women had equality and rights. I enjoyed every thing about this story. Informative and educational.

Lovely listen

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fascinating story with stories within a story loved it beautifully narrated brought to life expertly

A great novel

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This is obviously a very well-written book and, awful as she is, I loved Gwendolen and was always engaged in her side of the story. She's a character who would be just as fascinating in a modern novel as a 19th century one. Grandcourt too is a brilliant character.

Daniel, unfortunately, was a lot less interesting and so were the somewhat 2 dimensional characters that populated his half of the story. The proto-Zionist theme is both over and under-developed somehow and doesn't seem to lend itself to Eliot's incredible psychological insight and empathy for humans in all their frailty. Mordecai is more like a symbol than a real character.

The reading was OK. I like that she didn't read too slow and that she attempted some accents. I couldn't help hearing some of the Jewish characters as South African though which didn't seem right!

It's no Middlemarch

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I was surprised to find, when I checked, that this book had only been rated with two stars, as I actually found it very rewarding. There were some difficult bits in it (theories concerning Jewish ideas in the 19 century etc) which I'm afraid did tend to go in one ear and out the other, but the theme of the book in general was, I thought, very powerful. Despite the fact that it was written about 130 years ago, some of the characters experienced thoughts and emotions which wouldn't have been out of place in a modern novel, and although obviously the story can't help being dated, it is no less absorbing for that.

I would have struggled to get through a novel of this size in book form, and I am glad to have had the opportunity to discover it this way instead - any effort I had to make was definitely rewarded.

My only real quibble is that the reader seemed to have trouble in being consistent with her pronunciation of the name 'Mordecai', which she kept varying rather irritatingly, sometimes even in the same phrase. However, other than that I thought she read it with expression and I found it a reasonable quality.

worth listening to

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Eliot's final novel is a wonderfully challenging read because the book's enormous strengths and its weaknesses are here in abundance, waiting for the Reader to discriminate between what works and what fails to work and why exactly. It is no "Middlemarch": Eliot is exploring the lives of a very limited and pretty repulsive social class with little to endear them and the main protagonist is a sort of Rosamond Vincey mark two: an egotistical airhead with beauty but a self-destructively selfish, narcissistic outlook. it's like reading about Macbeth or Coriolanus her tragedy is presented at arm's length. Few people will empathise with Gwen Harlech. Deronda too is a difficult man to admire unconditionally. There are very few jokes. But many of the minor characters: Klesmer, Sir Hugo and Frans, Caroline Arrowhead and her parents are masterpieces in miniature.

The huge flaw is Eliot's Zionist fantasy and the two dimensional characters she generates to explore that unfortunate theme.

But some of the writing contains the most penetrating psychological analysis to be found in any modern novel. And we feel we are in the company of a powerful and fascinating creative mind. The book is even better second and third time through.

Nadia May's is a superb and intelligent reading but Juliet Stevenson's on Naxos is even finer! She takes more time, has an even better ear for characters and crucially we get translations of the important epigraphs in French and German. The silly little Audible voice at the end asking if we've enjoyed the show is particularly irritating!

A WONDERFUL CHALLENGE

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