Daniel Deronda - George Eliot

'Was she beautiful? Why was the wish to look again felt as coercion and not as a longing in which the whole being consents?'
These are the questions that Daniel deronda finds himself unable to answer when first he sees the alluring an vivacious Gwendolen Horleth at the roulette table. He is drawn to her but Gwendolen enters into an oppressive marriage with a powerful aristocrat determined to mould her into his perfect wife.
Whilst Gwendolen tries to survive her loveless marriage, Daniel meets Mira Lapidoth, a young Jewish girl, who has come to England to find her lost family. Uncertain of his parentage, Daniel becomes involved in a quest for his own identity which leads to a startling discovery.