Theodosia and the Pirates: How a Novel Can Lead to a Movement to Found a Country

Sunday, January 12, 2020

How a Novel Can Lead to a Movement to Found a Country

Did you know that the English novelist George Eliot was instrumental in launching Zionism? Now that right there is the power of books!

George Eliot, born Mary Ann Evans, was many things: a journalist, translator and novelist. But few people think of her as the power behind Zionism.

By replica by François D’Albert Durade (1804-1886) - National Portrait Gallery: NPG 1405, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78993800

Daniel Deronda, George Eliot's final completed work, predates by twenty years the instrumental article by Theodore Herzl calling for a "Jewish State". Was Daniel Deronda intended to launch the Zionist movement? Or was it just an imaginative work of fiction? Read the book to find out:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7469

It's out of copyright and free to be read by anyone with access to the internet. But if you are strapped for time, you could also watch this miniseries on YouTube free of charge.