Reading the Chunksters discussion

Brief summary:

Hans Meyrick is back in the story and his family, with Mirah.
Hans confesses his love for Mirah to Daniel, which he is not pleased with.
Mirah is seeking to earn her living as a singing teacher.
Mordecai and Daniel meet again.

I don't have much to say about these chapters, which are just moving the story along a little...

I think in this section the story swings over more to Deronda than Gwen for the first time and the characters of Mordecai and Mirah are embellished.

It seemed to me that Hans and his family want to convert Mirah to Christianity at the same time Daniel is learning about the Jewish faith. Fascinating parallelism.

I am terribly sorry. I couldn't sleep last night thinking that the chapters didn't match, but the book wasn't with me to be sure. I should have been sure before I posted. I deleted it and hope I didn't offend anyone too much. I am confused and staying with the schedule. I apologize. Please accept my apology.

Hi Tammy I think your comment on the story is a valid point. No need to apologize.

Tracey wrote: "Hi Tammy I think your comment on the story is a valid point. No need to apologize."

I gave spoilers from ch.41-47. Huge spoilers. I deleted them; I hope not many people saw my original post.

I didn’t see them and no one has commented so probably not. But if they did these things happen. Hope you are enjoying the book.

I have put up the thread for chapters 42-47 for those following the reading schedule.

Tracey wrote: "I have put up the thread for chapters 42-47 for those following the reading schedule."

Thanks for posting these.

I am falling behind, but I do hope I can catch up this weekend. I'm glad some people are still reading and discussing.

Anne wrote: "Tracey wrote: "I have put up the thread for chapters 42-47 for those following the reading schedule."

Thanks for posting these.

I am falling behind, but I do hope I can catch up this weekend. I'm..."
I am enjoying it so I am keeping going. The story is really starting to come together.

I am to this point now and I'm enjoying it. Some of the background information chapters have been a bit drawn out, but are still interesting. i don't know much about that period of Jewish history, so I'm learning a lot!

Karen Michele wrote: "I am to this point now and I'm enjoying it. Some of the background information chapters have been a bit drawn out, but are still interesting. i don't know much about that period of Jewish history, ..."

Glad you are stiil enjoying it. I did find by the end that I thought the book could be 100 pages less as Eliot did seem to get very wordy and digress constantly, but the book is one I am glad I read.

Deronda, a Bouddha in the flesh…such a pedestal Eliot has placed him atop. I couldn’t discern if his irritation with Hans stemmed from what he revealed as him being protective of Mirha, or if it was that he held her in high esteem himself? Only later, was it that I read Deronda realizing that he was jealous of Hans who had fallen in love with Mirah. Eliot fleshes out Deronda’s character quite well, he’s more human than martyr-like, becoming irritated with others who seem to be incapable of seeing him in any other light than divine.

Eliot begins to write a little more about the prejudices against Jews a little more. I had noticed a brief moment where the Meyrick sisters were talking to Mirah about her faith in comparison to Christianity…the differences in worship. That moment read more eloquent and respectful to me in comparison to what was being said amongst the Mallingers and other upper crust. Lady Mallinger referring to Mirah as a bigoted Jewess would fall into writing about the very stereotypes I didn’t think Eliot would indulge in earlier. However, I believe Eliot may have done so to shed light on these thoughts of the upper class to show they weren’t above this type of thinking? After all, the fish begins to stink from the head…no?

There was something about Mordecai that I didn’t understand, his need to impart his Judaic wisdom on

a man who would have all the elements necessary for sympathy with him, but in the embodiment unlike his own: he must be a Jew, intellectually cultured, morally fervid-in all this a nature ready to be plenished from Mordecai’s; but his face and frame must be beautiful and strong, he must have been used to all the refinements of social life, his voice must flow with a full and easy current, his circumstances be free from sordid need: he must glorify the possibilities of the Jew, not sit and wander as Mordecai did, bearing the stamp of his people amid the signs of poverty and waning breath (472).

While I understand time was of the essence for Mordecaii, I didn't understand his fervent need to imprint on a Deronda-like figure…why the longing towards the discernment of that friend to come, with whom he would have a calm certainty of fellowship and understanding (479)?

Mordecai, the spiritual gangster and terrorizer of kids…Oy, vey. SMH. I thought he sounded crazy, personally. Chapter 41, didn’t do him any favors either. The whole chapter read odd to me, in general, maybe it was the missing epigraph I had gotten too used to reading...IDK? But, back to Mordecai and Chapter 41 not doing him any favors, as Deronda too considered Mordecai to be associated with mental alienation…madness…peculiarites (493-494). However, I also thought Eliot’s treatment of Mordecaii in the remaining pages was one of compassion and vulnerability too, in spite of his overbearing and forceful interaction with Deronda. She then elevates the scene to another level, giving me another perspective to the dynamics between them…Eliot writes,

In ten minutes the two men, with as intense a consciousness as if they had been two undeclared lovers, felt themselves alone in the small gas-lit book-shop and turned face to face, each baring his head from an instinctive feeling that they wished to see each other fully. I would have missed this on my own had I not been directed to see it in this manner.

In this last chapter, Deronda was reminding me of Newland Archer in "The Age of Innocence," or even a Lewis Strether in "The Ambassadors..." all these men are rather dulled by their lives, and on the hunt for something substantial, the hunt for something to breathe life back into their lungs...enlightenment in whatever unfolds itself.

Deronda it seemed didn't just tap into his savior complex for the women in this book, but for Mordecai too. This was how I gathered him to be able to justify his relationship with Mordecai. He really did go all out to appease this sick Jewish man, didn't he? I mean, to great extents, I believe.