Daniel Deronda, Chapter 40 summary

What happens

1. Rowing toward the City, Deronda questions his habit of treating Mordecai chiefly as a source of information for Mirah’s sake.
2. Mordecai sees Deronda from Blackfriars Bridge and treats their meeting as the fulfillment of his long expectation.
3. Alone in the bookshop, Mordecai describes his Jewish learning, Hebrew writing, declining health, and unsuccessful appeals for understanding.
4. Mordecai demands a spiritual successor, and Deronda admits that he knows neither his mother nor his parentage with certainty.
5. Deronda agrees to further meetings but refuses to promise belief or hasten an inquiry into his birth.
6. Mordecai protects the Cohens’ private history, and Deronda leaves without redeeming his ring but promises to return.

In this chapter

What to notice

Deronda separates sympathy from assent. He cannot let Mordecai’s need determine the facts of his ancestry or the obligations those facts might establish.

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