35 h 6 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the life you long for becomes a cage, while a stranger’s suffering gives you a purpose?
At a roulette table in Germany, Gwendolen Harleth catches Daniel Deronda’s eye. Clever, proud and used to admiration, she expects life to bend to her wishes. Then her family loses its money. The wealthy Henleigh Grandcourt offers a way out, but his cold desire for obedience threatens the independence she treasures.
Daniel has money, kindness and every advantage, yet no clear purpose. When he rescues Mirah Lapidoth from the Thames, her search for her lost family draws him into Jewish life in London. George Eliot brings their stories alongside Gwendolen’s, asking what sympathy demands when another person’s troubles become impossible to ignore.
What you’ll discover
- Pride under pressure Follow Gwendolen as family need tests her hunger for admiration and independence.
- The cost of comfort Enter a marriage where wealth offers security but leaves little room for freedom.
- A purpose beyond privilege Watch Daniel seek a calling that comfort and an ordinary career cannot supply.
- Lives beyond country houses Meet Mirah, the Cohen family and Mordecai, whose hopes widen Daniel’s view of life.
- A narrator who reflects Move between minds as Eliot pauses to question motives, choices and duties to others.
Is it for you?
This is for readers who like long, serious novels about conscience, money and marriage, and who enjoy a narrator who thinks aloud. It may suit you less if you want fast plotting, or if you dislike long passages of argument and reflection.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A gambler's glance across the roulette table
- Gwendolen's family falls and her pride is tested
- Grandcourt arrives and a woman's warning goes unheeded
- Daniel searches for a purpose of his own
- A rescue by the river changes everything
- Mordecai, the dreamer in the pawnshop house
- Gwendolen's marriage becomes a cage
- What the novel says about sympathy and vocation
- How the story is told and how it has been read
Who’s who
- Gwendolen HarlethA beautiful, clever and spoiled young woman who wants admiration and independence, and who must choose between pride and the needs of her family.
- Daniel DerondaA kind, educated young man raised as Sir Hugo's ward, who feels deeply for others and longs for a purpose that is truly his own.
- Henleigh GrandcourtA wealthy, cold and controlling heir who expects obedience, and who sets his sights on Gwendolen as a prize.
- Mirah LapidothA young Jewish singer, gentle and proud, who flees her selfish father and searches London for her lost mother and brother.
- MordecaiA poor, sick and learned man who dreams of a renewed Jewish national life and waits for someone to carry on his ideas.
- Sir Hugo MallingerA good humoured baronet who has raised Daniel with generosity and wants him to follow an ordinary, comfortable career.
- Herr KlesmerA serious German musician who tells Gwendolen the truth about her talent and stands for real devotion to art.
- Hans MeyrickDaniel's cheerful, gifted painter friend from Cambridge, whose warm family shelters Mirah.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 35 h 6 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works · 60-day guarantee
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, for the whole household.
- We remind you first. We email you 7 days before your first payment. Then your first year is 50% off: 0,14 USD a day, then 0,27 USD a day, never raised. Or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
60-day money-back guarantee. If the library is not for you, ask within 60 days of your first payment and we refund it in full.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Daniel Deronda in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Read it side by side
Daniel Deronda
by George Eliot· 1876
Two young people struggle with identity, marriage, and responsibility.
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- The whole household
Starts right away, on any device
Read free60-day money-back guaranteeRenews every yearCancel anytimeHow it works
Language: Español
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A gambler's glance across the roulette table
The novel opens in a German spa town called Leubronn. In a crowded gaming room, a young Englishwoman is playing roulette, and a stranger watches her. He is Daniel Deronda, and he cannot decide whether she is beautiful or not. Eliot opens with that very question about her, and it sets the tone. The book is going to ask how we judge people from the outside, and how little the outside tells us.
The young woman is Gwendolen Harleth. She wins at first, and she enjoys the attention. Then her luck turns, and she loses. Daniel feels an odd mix of curiosity and discomfort, as if his looking at her has somehow played a part in her fall. Gwendolen notices him watching and takes it for disapproval. She resents him for it, and yet she cannot stop thinking about him.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
The author
George Eliot
1819–1880 · English novelist
George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, an English novelist, essayist, poet and journalist. She was born in Warwickshire in 1819 and later lived in London, where she died in 1880. Her novels include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Middlemarch (1871–1872).
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, for the whole household. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - The whole householdUp to 5 readers
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
More like this
Free
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
Questions about Daniel Deronda
Can I read it free?
Yes. The beginning, from the first page to the end of chapter 1, and the first 5 minutes of the audiobook are free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 90 days, with the eBook to keep. After that, your first year is 50% off. You also get 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
Can my family read too?
Yes. The whole household reads and listens: up to 5 readers, each with their own shelf and their own place in every book.
What if it is not for me?
Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. If you have paid and the library is not for you, ask within 60 days of your first payment and we refund it in full.
What is Daniel Deronda about?
It follows Gwendolen Harleth, a proud young woman who marries for money and regrets it, and Daniel Deronda, a young man searching for a purpose who becomes drawn into Jewish life in London.
Why is Daniel Deronda so controversial?
Eliot placed Jewish characters and the idea of a national homeland at the centre of an English novel. Readers have long debated whether her portraits are generous or uneven, and whether the two halves of the book fit together.
When was Daniel Deronda written and published?
Eliot published it in eight monthly parts in 1876. It is her last novel and the only one set in her own day, so it is fiction about the England she knew.
Popular in classics
See all
Free
Free
Free
