The Large Novel and the Law of Large Numbers; or, Why George Eliot Hates Gambling

In Daniel Deronda, George Eliot moves away from the organic understanding of the individual and society central to her earlier novels. Influenced by thought in statistics and probability, she comes to believe that the social laws that govern large numbers do not necessarily apply at the individual level. This is especially true of the Daniel Deronda's Gwendolen plot. The Jewish plot involving Daniel, while less familiar in subject matter, evokes more familiar Eliotic themes. The novel's moral censure of gambling condemns the belief that since things will "work out" at the level of large numbers, they will also work out for the individual.