• A new edition of George Eliot's last great novel, whose dual plot and Jewish storyline encompass issues that remain controversial and current in the twenty-first century.
• The novel combines a powerful story of the intertwined lives of Gwendolen Harleth and Daniel Deronda against the backdrop of a morally bankrupt Britain and the vision of establishing a Jewish homeland.
• New, wide-ranging introduction by K. M. Newton argues for the novel's innovations in its subject matter and treatment, linking it with aspects of modernist fiction and re-aligning its realism with romance-based fiction and the sensation novel. It considers themes of gambling and luck and questions negative judgements of the Jewish part.
• Up-to-date bibliography.
• Reprints the authoritative Clarendon critical text.

New to this Edition:

• New introduction by K. M. Newton
• New, up-to-date bibliography
• New, fuller chronology
• Revised explanatory notes

                         
'she felt herself standing at the game of life with many eyes upon her, daring everything to win much'
                 
Gwendolen Harleth gambles her happiness when she marries a sadistic aristocrat for his money. Beautiful, neurotic, and self-centred, Gwendolen is trapped in an increasingly destructive relationship, and only her chance encounter with the idealistic Deronda seems to offer the hope of a brighter future. Deronda is searching for a vocation, and in embracing the Jewish cause he finds one that is both visionary and life-changing. Damaged by their pasts, and alienated from the society around them, they must both discover the values that will give their lives meaning.
          
George Eliot's powerful novel is set in a Britain whose ruling class is decadent and materialistic, its power likely to be threatened by a politically emergent Germany. The novel's exploration of sexuality, guilt, and the will to power anticipates later developments in fiction, and its linking of the personal and the political in a context of social and economic crisis gives it especial relevance to the dominant issues of the twenty-first century.