ELIOT, George.

£4,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Daniel Deronda. First edition, in the original parts, of Eliot's last completed novel. It was her only work set in contemporary times, and her most controversial. The title character was based on Emanuel Deutsch, a Jewish scholar whom Eliot met in the 1860s and who taught her Hebrew. Although she was keen to confront Victorian antisemitism, Eliot was nervous about the novel, writing in her journal in 1876 that "the Jewish element seems to me likely to satisfy nobody" (Letters, p. 238). Despite the fact that the novel did indeed puzzle critics, who praised "the 'English' parts for the familiar humour and insight, while they felt awkward about the 'Jewish element'", Eliot still earned over £9,000 from its publication (ODNB).

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