Bettina Von Arnim and <i>Daniel Deronda</i>

Abstract For her portrayal of Mirah and Ezra/Mordecai in Daniel Deronda, George Eliot may have drawn on Bettine von Arnim’s accounts of her Frankfurt Jewish friends, Veilchen and Ephraim, in her published collections of letters. She would have found there not just philosemitic depiction of Jewish types and way of life but also ideas about the importance of Jewish identity in the life of nations.