Wordsworth Classics covers a huge list of beloved works of literature in English and translations. This growing series is rigorously updated, with scholarly introductions and notes added to new titles. 　　 　　Gwendolene Harleth marries for money and power rather than love, but finds marriage a trap and her husband's sadistic use of power constricting. The upper-class Victorian society in which she moves is juxtaposed with that of the hero, Daniel Deronda, whose influence is a redemptive force. 　　 　　 　　Novel by George Eliot, published in eight parts in 1876. It is notable for its exposure of Victorian anti-Semitism. The novel builds on the contrast between Mirah Cohen, a poor Jewish girl, and the upper-class Gwendolen Harleth, who marries for money and regrets it. The less convincingly realized hero, Daniel, after discovering that he is Jewish, marries Mirah and departs for Palestine to establish a home for his people. The warm picture of the Cohen family evoked grateful praise from Jewish readers, but the best part of Daniel Deronda is the keen analysis of Gwendolen's character, which seems to many critics the peak of George Eliot's achievement. 　　 　　 　　Nadia May meets the strenuous demands of Eliot's narration with easy assurance. In this enduring Victorian classic written in 1876, two stories weave in and out of each other: The first is about Gwendolen, one of Eliot's finest creations, who grows from a self-centered young beauty to a thoughtful adult with an expanded vision of the world around her. The second is about Daniel Deronda, adopted son of an aristocratic Englishman who becomes fascinated with Jewish traditions when he meets an ailing Jewish philosopher named Mordecai and his sensitive sister, Mirah. Providentially, Daniel then discovers that he himself is Jewish. Eliot's (Middlemarch, Audio Reviews, LJ 3/15/95) tender portrait of Mordecai is considered by some critics to be one of the most sympathetic treatments of a Jewish character in Victorian literature. Characterizations are strong throughout, except when the author takes center stage and delivers one of her lengthy monologs. Once the compelling drama resumes, it makes incredible demands on the narrator. However, whether May is reading French or German or Italian quotations, or interpreting Mordecai's Zionist speeches, she deserves to share the final applause with George Eliot herself.?Jo Carr, Sarasota, FL 　　 　　 　　In her lifetime, Marian Evans (1819-80) was celebrated under her pen name of George Eliot as England's greatest living novelist. Today, she is known primarily as the bane of school kids who, having SILAS MARNER thrust down their throats, learn to despise the written word. Dove seeks to make palatable this dreaded tome, about an idealistic orphan who discovers his Jewish heritage in the course of rescuing a Jewish singer and giving succor to the beautiful Gwendolen, who is trapped in a bad marriage. Like Beacham, Bron negotiates the author's difficult locutions with comprehension and aplomb. Unfortunately her Masterpiece Theaterish delivery loses some of Eliot's personality. However, she so masterfully and assuredly puts across the text and so insightfully presents the characters that we can forgive her the lapse into the prevailing fashion. If you're a former school kid wondering just what the heck makes this novel living literature, you may find out by picking up this audiobook. Y.R. 　　 　　 　　Edmund White is the author of many novels, including A Boy’s Own Story (available as a Modern Library hardcover classic) and The Married Man. He has written a long biography of Jean Genet and a short one of Proust. His most recent book is The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris. White teaches writing at Princeton University. 　　 　　 　　length: (cm)19.8 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)12.6