Daniel Deronda Chapter 19 Summary

  • Finding Mirah has been the most exciting thing to happen to Daniel, ever. He stays up through the night reliving the whole scene at the river.
  • Daniel thinks about how he never knew his own mother. He worries that finding Mirah's mother and brother might turn out to be a calamity – it's totally possible that her young memories of her family are skewed, and that they're not really as good as she remembers.
  • We learn Daniel's opinion of Jewish people – he has the tendency to be very accepting of other people who are not like him, but he also imagines that "good" Jewish people are not totally devoted to their religion.
  • He realizes that there are a lot of bad stereotypes about Jewish people.
  • He imagines finding Mirah's mom and pictures her living in totally poverty on a dingy street.
  • We learn that he associates "unknown parentage" with his own feelings of dread.
  • Daniel worries about what to do about Mirah.
  • He aims to tell Sir Hugo and Lady Mallinger all about Mirah the next morning, but then decides against it, just in case he learns something new about Mirah the next time he visits Mrs. Meyrick.