Jason Furman's Reviews > Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot

An excellent short book about how George Eliot came to write Daniel Deronda, the broader philosophical and intellectual questions the book was engaged in, and some about its afterlife. It vividly portrays just how intellectually engaged George Eliot was, situating her novel in a broader set of political philosophical debates about the meaning of citizenship, nationality, rationality, and religion.

The book is well organized in six parts that cover: (1) the debates over the "Jewish question" in France, Germany and the UK--the big question being whether Jews could be citizens of countries, especially ones like England that were based on an official state religion, (2) George Eliot's initiation into this question, including through some of the work she did as a translator engaging with important texts that debated it, (3) a summary of Daniel Deronda, focusing on the ways it was in philosophical dialogue about this issue, (4) a discussion of an essay she wrote after Daniel Deronda expanding on the Jewish themes, and (5) a discussion of the changing reception to Daniel Deronda, from skepticism about the Jewish parts, to her falling out favor, to her regaining stature.

I learned both some interesting intellectual history and gained even greater appreciation for George Eliot.