By David B. Goldstein. 148 pp. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2008. $26. ISBN 978-0-300-12583-2.
In 1875, the newly graduated Cambridge polymath Joseph Jacobswrote a review of George Eliot's last completed novel, DanielDeronda, the story of a young English gentleman who discovershis Jewish identity. The experience was transformative for Jacobs;not only did he launch his literary career through his friendshipwith Eliot (whose given name was Mary Anne Evans) and her illustriouscircle, but in the process he also discovered his own Jewishidentity. Through his subsequent work in physical anthropology,he became a defender of the concept of a Jewish race. As hewrote in the Jewish Encyclopedia in 1901, . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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