With an Introduction & Notes by Dr Carole Jones freelance writer & researcher George Eliot's final novel Daniel Deronda (1876) follows the intertwining lives of the beautiful but spoiled & selfish Gwendolene Harleth & the selfless yet alienated Daniel Deronda as they search for personal & vocational fulfilment & sympathetic relationship Set largely in the degenerate English aristocratic society of the 1860s Daniel Deronda charts their search for meaningful lives against a background of imperialism the oppression of women & racial & religious prejudice Gwendolen's attempts to escape a sadistic relationship & atone for past actions catalyse her friendship with Deronda while his search for origins leads him via Judaism to a quest for moral growth Eliot's radical dual narrative constantly challenges all solutions & ensures that the novel is as controversial now as when it first appeared