Marian Evans on the Jews*
In this article Miss Altman draws a fine distinction between the George Eliot of literature and the Marian Evans of private life. We hope at no distant date to publish an article which shall show the blending of these characters in the person of the author of "Daniel Deronda," a volume that is deserving of more and more study from Jews as a book that envisages a Jewish ideal which no one has seen more accurately than the non-Jewish authoress.—[Ed. MAC.]
GEORGE ELIOT'S sympathetic treatment of the Jews is, if not the solitary,at least the greenest, oasis in the whole vast desert of English fiction.They are no ordinary, commonplace Jews and Jewesses, uncouth' and bewigged, such, for instance, as one often meets among Zangwill's "children," thatGeorge Eliot drew. She idealized her Jewish characters. They are not merely"types," but heroic figures—the one an echo of the Jewish past, the other a heraldof a Jewish future, a rejuvenated nation, and restored nationality. -Such heroiccharacters are not untrue to life, for have we not in our own day one who is as truean imitation of Deronda as possible, namely, Dr. Herzl?
That a non-Jewish writer should have been inspired to create such noble Jewish characters has been the wonder and admiration of the Jews ever since. Not that the Jews are in the least surprised to find themselves regarded as capable of producing worthy examples, but because they are accustomed to see themselves not truly depicted, but cruelly caricatured and shamefully misrepresented by most writers of fiction. It is but natural, then, that the Jews should feel exceedingly grateful to the memory of George Eliot, who so enthusiastically championed their misunderstood cause.
But few of those, perhaps, who attribute breadth of view and impartiality of treatment to the author of "Daniel Deronda," are aware that the high ideals and
* George Eliot's real name was Mary Ann Evans. In course of time it was written Marian.—R. A. A.