George Eliot's ‘Daniel Deronda’ and the Jewish Question in Russia of the 1870s–1900s

This article studies the remarkable popularity of Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's last novel, and its reception in Russia of the 1870s–1900s, in the context of the Jewish question and Russian social, moral, political, literary and cultural life, during the period after 1861 reforms. The article notes the fact of five Russian translations of Daniel Deronda and shows that fiction – Russian translations of foreign fiction included – addressed the most urgent contemporary issues and were seen as an efficient way to educate readers socially and morally. It is also demonstrated how much translation, publishing and critical reception of the novel accorded with the dynamics of the ‘Jewish question’ in Russia. It is noted which aspects of the form and content of the novel were the most discussed by Russian critics.