A revealing portrait of the hypocrisy and superficiality of high society, George Eliot's final novel also provides a glimpse of Jewish life in Victorian Britain. Daniel Deronda traces the intertwined lives of two markedly different characters: spirited, selfish Gwendolen, who maintains her social position by entering a loveless marriage; and compassionate Daniel, whose rescue of a suicidal woman leads to his immersion into the Jewish community and Zionist politics.
