As Daniel Deronda opens, Gwendolen Harleth is poised at the roulette-table, prepared to throw away her family fortune. She is observed by Daniel Deronda, a young man groomed in the finest tradition of the English upper-classes. And while Gwendolen loses everything and becomes trapped in an oppressive marriage, Deronda's fortunes take a different turn. After a dramatic encounter with the young Jewish woman Mirah, he becomes involved in a search for her lost family and finds himself drawn into ever-deeper sympathies with Jewish aspirations and identity.
Adaptations (3)
Daniel Deronda has been adapted 3 times, across film and miniseries, from 1921 to 2002.
Daniel Deronda1921 · film · dir. W. Courtney Rowden · IMDb ↗IMDb5.0A Jewess refuses to wed the man who saved her from suicide until he discovers his mother is Jewish.
- Daniel Deronda1970 · film · 270 min · IMDb ↗
I well remember seeing this serial version of Daniel Deronda in the old days of black and white TV. The character played by Robert Hardy was so well realised; he really seemed an unbearable person, unlike in the later version when he was merely unpleasant. Our sympathies were with Gwendolen, although she is a flawed personality. By the end of the story you feel she might reform...I don't think this gives too much away! Daniel himself is enthralling, and of course in those days the scriptwriters were allowed to give their characters so much more dialogue. You had a chance of understanding the thought-processes and developments of the characters without being bored. Later adaptations can seem so shallow.
Daniel Deronda2002 · miniseries · 210 min · IMDb ↗IMDb7.2In 1870s England, idealist Daniel Deronda seeks his mysterious origins and becomes entangled in the lives of the self-centered Gwendolen Harleth, who is trapped in a loveless marriage, and Jewish singer Mirah Lapidoth.
