Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot »

It is one of the curiosities of English literary history that the most remarkable English novel about Jews should have been written by a non-Jew - a Victorian woman, moreover, who is generally regarded as the greatest English novelist of her time. The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot examines why a woman who was firmly labeled an unbeliever would take up the cause of Judaism and its promise of nationhood and statehood.

Library Journal

George Eliot's last novel, Daniel Deronda (1876), makes an astonishing case for Zionism well before the traumas and tragedies of Jewish life in the 20th century. Himmelfarb (The Moral Imagination), an important figure in the neoconservative movement, has written a wide-ranging and fair-minded discussion of Daniel Deronda from a conservative and Zionist perspective. Himmelfarb discusses Eliot's life, various European intellectual enlightenment traditions, and the Jewish and general political conditions in Great Britain during the 19th century. She also considers Lionel Trilling's and F.R. Leavis's writings on Eliot and her last novel and offers critical insights on Jean-Paul Sartre's and Edward Said's views on Judaism and imperialism. Himmelfarb makes the case for a conservative reading of Eliot and for a proactive Zionism, as distinct from Zionism as a response to the destructive forces of 20th-century history. She considers Natan Sharansky the heir of George Eliot's thoughts and work. VERDICT While of some interest to literature students, Himmelfarb's book will be eagerly consumed by serious readers interested in questions of Jewish identity and present-day Israel.—Gene Shaw, NYPL