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    Adam Bede
    Adam Bede
    Adam Bede
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    Adam Bede

    Written by George Eliot

    Narrated by Hannah Gordon

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The fictitious landscape of Loamshire provides the setting for this country tragedy, with little peace about the intertwined lives of its inhabitants. Dinah Morris is an earnest Methodist preacher who rejects Seth Bede for a life devoted to God. Adam Bede, his brother, is also rejected, but by Hetty Sorrel, a gullible dairymaid who falls for dashing Arthur Donnithorne, the squire's heir. The passions roused in the community of Hayslope have disastrous consequences: a fight between two rivals, an illegitimate pregnancy and a woman driven to desperate deeds. In Adam Bede George Eliot gripped her readers with an imaginative and complex tale.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Copyright Group
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780002880
    Author

    George Eliot

    George Eliot (1819-80) was born Mary Ann Evans into the family of a Warwickshire land agent and did not escape provincial life until she was 30. But she was brilliantly self-educated and able at once to shine in London literary circles. It was, however, her novels of English rural life that brought her fame, starting with Adam Bede, published under her new pen name in 1859, and reaching a zenith with Middlemarch in 1871. Eliot was a devoutly moral woman but lived for 25 years with a man who already had a wife. It is indicative of the respect and love that she inspired in her most devoted readers that Queen Victoria was one of them.

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    Reviews for Adam Bede

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    • 4/5
      George Eliot published Adam Bede, her first novel, in 1859 to great acclaim. This richly detailed novel tells the story of Adam, a carpenter, and his love for Hetty Sorrel, a vain young woman who falls in love with the local gentleman, Captain Arthur Donnithorne. Using this love triangle as her foundation, Eliot painstakingly illustrates the intricacies of rural life at the turn of the eighteenth century.The characters in George Eliot’s Adam Bede exist along a continuum of human weakness. From Hetty and Arthur, who give in too easily to their illicit passion, to Adam’s mother Lisbeth, whose temperament warps an otherwise honest character, all the way to Dinah, a pinnacle of correct behavior and Christian compassion.Adam is situated toward the upper end of that continuum. He is a stoic and honest man, with good intentions and sincere passions. He is a hard worker and trustworthy, respected among his peers and even admired by the small town’s gentry. But Eliot does not give her reader an unflawed hero. Adam is proud and severe in his judgment of others. He is also blind to the failings of the woman he loves. This ultimate but innocent fault will nearly cost him his happiness when the truth of all that has occurred between Hetty and Arthur finally comes to light.Despite its pastoral setting and overall bucolic tone, there is a serious scandal at the heart of the novel. Eliot’s frank, forthright treatment of Arthur and Hetty’s love affair, and its ensuing complications, turn this seemingly quiet novel into a careful investigation of morality and human limitations.Eliot’s real skill lies in portraying the rural setting as well as each of her characters with as much detail as possible. This makes for a layered novel, filled with a number of multifaceted moral dilemmas: Will Dinah consent to marry Adam’s brother Seth, even though she feels called to continue her ministry? Will Adam eventually understand Hetty’s true character? How will Adam negotiate his long-standing friendship with Arthur after the scandal is revealed?Adam Bede is read less often than Eliot’s purported masterpiece Middlemarch and for good reason. Although a highly accomplished first novel and a rewarding and entertaining read, Adam Bede does contain a certain number of conspicuous flaws. The structure for instance, lacks a certain shape and economy. Eliot takes some time to get her plot moving and there are even a few chapters which appear to be superfluous. These small failings, however, only indicate how accomplished Eliot already was at the time she published Adam Bede and provide a wonderful discussion base for her later novels.George Eliot’s Adam Bede is a deeply psychological work which delves into the darker corners of human weakness using the complex realities of love, friendship, sorrow and forgiveness to paint its splendid portrait.
    • 2/5
      Title and author: Adam Bede (1859) by George Eliot. Reviewed 4/29/23Why I picked this book up: I opened this book because it was the first in The Banned Books Compendium: 32 Classic Forbidden Books.Thoughts: George Eliot is a pen name of Mary Ann Evans, an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede, Silas Marner, and others. I did not know George Eliot as a pen name for a female author. I never heard of this book before so for me if was new in multiple ways. Even though it went with the era I didn’t like the language much.Why I finished this read: This author did a really good job IMO, of creating characters, symbolism, roles, power, a beautiful girl, it starts with flirtation, selfishness and crisis of faith and tragedy. There is a dynamic of characters, desires, decisions, legal consequences and death I cannot condone and probably the reason for it beings banned which contributed to my low star rating . Stars rating: Although I disagree with the decision in this book. I know millions of babies are aborted in the US NOT to saying this book had that I will rate this story at a 1.5 stars. Although the story was well written the decision sickened me and I really do not see that decision made in this book could have been made in my life.
    • 4/5
      Another Eliot novel I enjoyed just fine, but which didn't come anywhere near the excellence of Middlemarch. Very good, though, in its depiction of rural life, and with some quite funny moments too.
    • 4/5
      “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds, and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitutes a man's critical actions, it will be better not to think ourselves wise about his character."

      Published in 1859 and set in the fictional rural English village of Hayslope in 1799, this is the story of a town, focusing on two women and two men of different temperaments. Adam Bede is smitten by pretty Hetty Sorrel, a farmgirl, who dreams of becoming a lady of wealth and leisure. She is attracted to the squire’s son, Captain Arthur Donnithorne. Arthur does not mind a dalliance but is not about to marry a woman of lower social standing. Dinah Morris is a Methodist minister – a woman in this role would have been quite rare for the time. Dinah’s kind compassionate nature is contrasted with Hetty’s flightiness and frivolity. Adam’s serious principled disposition is contrasted with Arthur’s reckless selfishness.

      To say this is a love triangle is to sell it short. It is a novel of many dimensions, including changing times on the cusp of a new century, restrictions due to social class, the role of women, religion, education, infatuation, shame, and manslaughter. Strengths of this book include the depth of the psychological development of the characters the depiction of their gradual transformations. It conveys an emotional depth that echoes through time. The story touched me deeply, especially in the climactic scenes. If I have one criticism, it is the denouement, which seems long and dragged out. Though definitely Victorian in its tone and style, it has the trappings of a timeless story of human nature. I enjoyed it very much.
    • 2/5
      Unfortunately, trying to interpret the dialect gets in the way of enjoying the story.
    • 5/5
      Just reading the first chapter I didn't know what to make of this novel. The dialogue was difficult to read, but the narration was a little simple. By the second chapter the book was easier and I realize Eliot was just writing how some of the working class characters would have talked back then. Overall I enjoyed this novel. I like how it started out as a simple plot between characters, but then towards the end turned into a tragic romance.

      When I say tragic, do I mean tragic. I can see some "sensitive" people probably reading this book and not liking it at all. I woun't say what happens because it's a spoiler, but for a book written in the 1800s I felt it was a little ballsy. If you know who George Eliot was and her writing style the ballsy part I don't think comes to a surprise. Her stories are character driven, not really plot driven, so she writes more realistic people rather than sugarcoating things.

      I'm really becoming a huge fan of George Eliot though. I've only read this book and Middlemarch, but I love her writing style. I honestly think she is the greatest writer from the Victorian era. They way sh writes is modern compared to the writers at her time, like Dickens for example. I have a feeling she usually is ignored because her books are long, and she was a woman who chose to write what she wanted under a male name because she wanted to be taken seriously. By the time she was writing women could use there on names, but it was mostly silly romances.

      I still liked Middlemarch more, but I liked this one a lot too.
    • 4/5
      Did not believe Dinah. Otherwise thoroughly enjoyed. Nearly packed it in when her sermon custard-pied the opening chapter!!
    • 3/5
      Adam Bede was a really slow read for me. I would say overall I liked it but it's kind of a slog. There are some stunningly beautiful turns of phrase in describing rural life. I also found it interesting to see that contemporaneous view of the protestant work ethic invading everyday life. At the same time, I found some of the plot points (for instance, Dinah's sudden marriage) kind of dumb and out of character. Dunno, maybe it just wasn't for me at this time of my life. As a note, I think that Daniel Deronda is a masterwork so it's not Eliot generally. I love DD -- it has so much depth and complexity, plus it's just a great story. I didn't see the same in Adam Bede.
    • 4/5
      Adam Bede, was the first novel by Mary Ann Evans, and was published in 1859.I read this as part of 1001 Books and TBR takedown. It was an enjoyable story of the 19th century. According to wikipedia, this story is founded on the life of the author's aunt who was a female preacher. I enjoyed the calm, peacefulness of this story of human life. I enjoyed the characterization of Adam, Arthur, Hettie and Diane. I thought the characters were real. It covers such items as infantacide, women preachers. It has a rural setting. Everything ends well and that makes the novel unbelievable in the scheme of things.
    • 4/5
      Adam Bede by George Eliot was her first novel and was originally published in 1859. The story explores the nature of physical and mental attraction and in this case lead to a tragedy and many misunderstandings before everything was worked out. The author sets her story of love, faith and redemption against a picturesque background of rural England. Unfortunately the rules and morals of society were not a pretty as the setting and there were some that had to pay a very hefty price for taking their attraction to each other too far.I read the book in installment form and found it to be an engrossing story. Set in a small rural village called Hayslope, a love triangle develops between the beautiful but self-absorbed Hetty Sorrel, her suitor, the stalwart Adam Bede and the young squire who seduces her. To complicate the story further, we have Adam’s brother Seth, who loves Dinah Morris, Hetty’s cousin, a virtuous and beautiful Methodist lay preacher. Dinah does not wish to give up her preaching for Seth, but she does have feelings for his brother, Adam.I liked this story but was never overly fond of Adam or Dinah. My sympathies lay much more with the other characters and in particular, Hetty, who really had nowhere to turn and no one to help her. I found Dinah, with her holier-than-thou attitude, rather a cold fish. However, the author enhances the story with rich details, wonderful writing and a wide variety of characters making Adam Bede a very good reading experience.
    • 5/5
      Adam Bede is a classic that reads even better after many years.Unlike Wuthering Heights, which overflows with meanness and cruelty and not the remembered passion,George Eliot's first book still flows into a compelling story of love sorrowfully lost. Characters and locale,as well as dogs and food, are finely revealed.Okay, this doesn't make Dinah's speeches any less insufferable or guide Hetty away from increasingly awful thinking.And when, aside from Vixen, did sex occur? Does a dropped handkerchief signify seduction?
    • 5/5
      Our title character is a good man and a simple one. He sees the world in black and white. Work hard, take care of your family, and you will lead a good life. He falls in love with an impetuous young woman named Hetty. Unfortunately, Hetty has fallen for the wealthy Captain Arthur Donnithorne, a man above her station, but one who is still susceptible to the young woman’s charms. I loved the character of Dinah. She could be perceived as a killjoy or prude, but she never cane across to me like that. She is Hetty’s cousin and is a Methodist preacher who travels the countryside serving in local communities. Keep in mind, this was at a time when it was unusual for a woman to travel about on her own, much less to serve as a leader in the church. She has a fierce strength and independence and doesn’t give into the pleas from her family to give up her calling. When she is asked about being a woman preacher, this is what she says…“When God makes His presence felt through us, we are like the burning bush: Moses never took any heed what sort of bush it was—he only saw the brightness of the Lord.” ****SPOILERS*****Dinah: When she does finally fall for Adam, she still doesn’t agree to marry until he declares that he will never stand in the way of her duties as a preacher and he fully supports her. I was a bit heartbroken from Adam’s brother Seth, since he’s the one who originally pursued Dinah. Hetty’s story is so heartbreaking. I can’t imagine feeling so hopeless and abandoned. In the midst of her panic about her pregnancy she didn’t trust anyone with her secret and so she was unwilling to look for other options. Even though her life was spared, her future was still going to be full of grief and guilt no matter what. SPOILERS OVERBOTTOM LINE: I loved it. It reminded me so much of Tess of the d’Urbervilles and The Return of the Native (both of which were published decades after this one). It’s an intense look at the desperation of one woman and the man who loved her. I appreciated the rich depth of characters like Dinah and Adam. I also liked that Arthur wasn't a one-note cad. He easily could have been, but instead we see the situation from his point of view as well. “What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.” “What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life--to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?”“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.”
    • 4/5
      Thank god for sparknotes. While I enjoy Eliot and liked the story presented here, god forbid my attention wandered for a moment, I found myself completely lost. This is another book I'll have to re-read at a later date to thoroughly appreciate since I believe I would have enjoyed it more had I paid closer attention the first time.
    • 5/5
      Six-word review: Love and passion rule humble hearts.Extended review:Intersecting and overlapping romantic triangles generate drama in a rural English village, where Adam Bede, a carpenter, carries a torch for pretty, vain Hetty Sorrel.In this novel as well as those that came later, George Eliot treats her characters--ordinary people, for the most part, in a rustic setting--with respect and compassion. Even mean and despicable characters benefit by her redemptive insight; she never shies away from folly or ill deeds, but she shows the humanity in them. She writes: "The way in which I have come to the conclusion that human nature is lovable--the way I have learnt something of its deep pathos, its sublime mysteries--has been by living a great deal among people more or less commonplace and vulgar." Strong emotions and complex inner states are by no means the province of the privileged classes.Although this first novel has several conspicuous flaws, Eliot's storytelling skills, her rendition of ordinary people, and her depiction of the bond between people and place give this work a spacious scope and a quality of deep reflection. As we share in her perceptions and revelations, we grow our own capacity for empathy and our sense that everyone has a story worth telling.
    • 3/5
      Finely captured snapshot of rural life in England. More believable characters than other Victorian fiction.Read Mar 2007
    • 3/5
      Credit must be given to George Eliot: she got the dialect of rural England so precisely - it's as if she grew up among the villagers there! She is equally good at pinpointing the sensitivities of bucolic mind and behavior of the peasant population of that era, late 1700s - early 1800s. Her description of rural landscape is vivid and idyllic.But BECAUSE of this adherence to the dialect in dialogues (with countless apostrophes and letter omissions and intentionally irregular grammar of illiterate peasant folk) it was so much harder to read, it was like a stumbling block throughout. About 70 % of the dialogue, I would say, was in dialect. True, the narrative part and dialogue between the educated people (the rector, the young squire and such) was in correct English, but the distraction of the dialect was still distracting.As for the plot - there is a religious theme (with a virtuous and angel-like Dinah, the Methodist preacher), and a tragic life drama, and a lot of moral dilemmas facing the main characters, with the help of the author's stepping in for a chat with the reader at times.I was taken by some insights the author offers, and I can't help but have a few quotes here (for they certainly ring a bell):In one she describes a mother (who is usually very abrupt) dealing with a child "...the mother, with that wondrous patience which love gives to the quickest temperament...".Then a few more:"The vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her own beauty till she is loved by the man who sets her own passion vibrating in return"."Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds....""And so Adam went to bed comforted, having woven for himself an ingenious web of probabilities - the surest screen a wise man can place between himself and the truth.""In bed our yesterdays are too oppressive: if a man can only get up, though it be but for a whistle of a smoke, he has a present that offers some resistance to the past - sensations which assert themselves against tyrannous memories ".(I think I should have started my George Eliot reading with "Middlemarch", and I will definitely get to that one...).
    • 5/5
      Accurate rendering of English pastoral life, realistic irrevocable consequences of human actions and on moral growth and redemption through suffering. This edition includes good historical notes, a glossary of old English, and a reading group guide which I found very helpful.
    • 3/5
      It may be heresy (why is it always heresy to dislike a "classic" when a book's status as a classic mainly stems from its age?), but I'm not particularly fond of George Eliot. Granted, I read her books when I was rather younger, but I found her tone too moralistic and prescriptive, and the political overtones too strident. Adam Bede is perhaps one of my least favourite of the books of hers that I have read. We have our overly prim, proper, and holier-than-thou protagonists, Adam Bede and Dinah Morris, to teach us the proper path. Apparently the "right way" is, at the tender age of twenty, to go around preaching to everyone and providing moral guidance for those lesser beings from one's own tremendous heights of experience. The "right way" is to be uptight and silent, to enjoy nothing, and to purposefully inflict suffering upon oneself to mimic the humiliation Jesus endured. (Oh, and to be Methodist. Although Dinah is called alternately Quaker and Methodist--I really don't understand how these beliefs were confused. Were they more similar back in the day, or did Eliot simply conflate the two Welsh belief systems?) We also have our standard moral exemplars, the characters who behave badly and are duly punished. Interestingly, in this book it becomes clear that bad behaviour includes vanity, self-satisfaction, selfishness, infanticide(how dare women step outside the role of wife and mother?), and, most importantly, stepping outside one's social station. Jane Austen, most notably in Emma, also preaches the virtues of rigid social classes and the evils of interclass fraternization, but I can't help but feel that Eliot is far more dogmatic and obvious in shoving the message down her readers' throats. Unlike Austen, Eliot also demonizes the upper class as frivolous and amoral. In terms of tone, Eliot uses the same wealth of description and narrative commentary favoured by other writers of the period, including Dickens and Hugo. It's not particularly my favorite. She has a few sly barbs, but every one I caught is stated much more cleverly by the inimitable Austen. Overall, I found it a lugubrious and preachy read.
    • 4/5
      Having been a George Eliot fan for many years ('Middlemarch' is my favourite novel of all time) I have been far too long getting round to reading 'Adam Bede'. I'm not sure whether this is a neglected classic or simply neglected by me, though I have noticed there seem to be few TV or film adaptations, perhaps an indication of the book's relative obscurity.It certainly deserves to be better known and more often read. Though not without faults (it was, after all, Ms Eliot's first novel) it is for the most part rich in its descriptions, absorbing in its plot, and generally strong in its characterisation. It is a slight pity that the 'saints' (Adam Bede and Dinah Morris) are not so imaginatively drawn as the 'sinners' (Arthur Donnithorne and especially Hetty Sorrel) and therefore interest us less, but the same could be said of many undisputed classics - Tess of the D'Urbevilles, for example, featuring the insipid Angel Clare.In fact there are a number of strong parallels between this novel and 'Tess' which make me wonder if Hardy used George Eliot's work as a model for his own. Hetty, like Tess, is a pretty girl of the country labouring classes, seduced and left pregnant by a member of the local gentry. Both babies die in infancy. Both women are arrested, tried and committed to hang, though in Hetty's case there is a rather contrived 'deus ex machina' reprieve brought by her repentant seducer. Both novels are set in rural England and both present a large supporting cast of colourful countryfolk who provide vernacular comic relief. Both are moralistic works of their time, though Hardy's characteristic pessimism about the human lot runs counter to the early George Eliot's optimistic, overtly Christian outlook.I am not claiming for 'Adam Bede' superior provenance over 'Tess of the D'Urbevilles', much less as high a place in the unofficial league table of English literature, but I would hope readers will be stimulated by this review among others favourable to the novel and not wait as long as I did to read it.
    • 5/5
      The Scarlet Letter written by a woman. Eliot addresses the horror of an unmarried woman getting pregnant amidst the good countryfolk of Britain in 1799.

      I like George Eliot because, in my opinion, her characters are more complex than those of other female writers such as Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters. As much as I like The Scarlet Letter, I prefer Adam Bede because there is repentance and growth in Eliot's characters.

      I felt the desire to be a better person after reading this book, perhaps the first time this has ever occurred to me on finishing a novel. And it was a complex better person, made up of bits and pieces of all the characters.
    • 3/5
      I don’t usually like dialogue written in dialect, but in this 1859 novel by Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot), I first got used to it, and then started to enjoy it. After a while, the dialect seems indispensable. There are lots of colorful characters, especially middle-aged and old women, who express themselves with great eloquence.

      This is a love story, but it’s also a story of early lost love and disillusionment, and of the abuse of class privilege. Adam Bede is a righteous, hard-working carpenter, whose main fault is a quickness to judge others, and he falls in love with a beautiful but self-centered milkmaid, Hetty. He doesn’t realize his main competition comes from Arthur, the well-meaning but self-important young squire, who has fallen for Hetty but can never marry her. All these characters are drawn in a careful and nuanced way. Then there’s Dinah, the saintly Methodist preacher, and she was a little too good to be true, at least for me. I would’ve liked her better if Eliot had made her a little less self-sacrificing!
    • 5/5
      So much I could say, but it's probably been said elsewhere by someone less sleepy. Totally compelling and thought-provoking themes of the relationship between intelligence and moral judgment, gender and power, and human nature. Also wonderfully rendered characters, extreme drama, and general awesomeness.

      Stylistically, it kept surprising me with the beauty of its prose, particularly its descriptions of the characters' inner lives. I also really, really enjoyed the northern English dialect, which is something, because usually dialect makes readers run away in fear. Generally I thought it did a superb job of portraying a small farm community without falling into pastoral cliche. Certain books entitled Tess of the D'Urbervilles had made me assume that I did not like pastoral novels, but in fact in turns out that I simply do not like annoying pastoral novels.

      Eliot's first full-length novel, and one of her best that I've read so far. If I was going to criticize it, I would say that the ending was too tidy, but everything did fit together with a pleasing logic. Also, all Dinah's religious speeches were a bit much, but considering that Eliot was agnostic, I don't think she was trying to be preachy.

      Of all her books I think I will look most forward to rereading this one.
    • 5/5
      There's no doubt that George Eliot consistently produces a similar kind of heroine in all her books (at least those I've read). Dorothea Brooke; Maggie Tulliver; Mirah Lapidoth; and now Dinah Morris - all of them are filled with an inner vision of some Greater Good, and they spend their lives single-mindedly pursuing it. All of them are simple in manner and noble in ideals. All are blind to the sordidness of life and are filled instead with a bright light, which they tend to temporarily pass on to others around them. They all, when described like this, seem as if they'd be preachy, moral characters, highly distasteful to the modern idea of a heroine - the Victorian Martyr type. Probably there are in fact many readers today who do dislike them, but I would find such dislike hard to understand. There is something about George Eliot which I've tried to describe before, and which I love. It resonates with all the things I hold dear in life, but I can never properly put it into words. It's a kind of intelligent compassion, a relentless exploration of how people tick, but without mockery or meanness. It's a way of looking at why people do the things they do (often things that are automatically judged as wrong or stupid), and pulling out all the deep-hidden motives and meanings and bits of personality that went into that action, until it all makes sense. It's a truism that the more we know about a person, the harder it is to judge them. For me, George Eliot shows us that in everything she writes. The story of Adam Bede is a Victorian cliche - simple young country girl 'gets into trouble'. But Eliot removes the cliche-ness of it and makes us see everything with new eyes. Of course, the consequences of it all are hard to understand in the modern world - probably one reason Adam Bede is less well-known than her other books. The issue, so deadly serious then, is of course a pointless nothing in today's common Western society. But that doesn't change the effectiveness of the story, unless the reader is utterly incapable of entering into a set of values different from their own. The other heroine of this book is a very different one for Eliot to depict. It must have been difficult, I think, for Eliot to sympathetically portray a shallow young rustic beauty like Hetty Sorrell, with the instincts of a luxurious animal and no capacity for any real thought at all. But it's very well done indeed.Another lovely thing about this book is its sense of place. Such a luxuriant wallow, this book is, in rural England at its best. Such floods of sunshine, such golden harvest, such shady groves of old oaks on green turf, such rose gardens and wheat fields, such white pure dairies and such winding roads on green hills! And then, when winter comes, such bleakness and dampness and black ice on still ponds! It's worth reading just for all this. I must not forget the minor characters. Mrs Poyser is wonderfully good fun - shades of Dickens. Every sentence out of her mouth is a treasure. And poor sweet Seth Bede is well worth loving too (though many seem to disagree). They all live, every character, their separate, whole lives; even if a lot of it happens in the background. My only gripe would involve a spoiler, so I will dance around it in this review. I'm talking about Dinah's ultimate destiny. It seemed to lessen her character. I thought it was a pity.
    • 5/5
      I believe this may be the most beautiful book I have ever read. I felt both uplifted and emotionally drained when I finished. The tragedy and the great beauty of George Eliot's writing! I didn't read this edition, mine was much older, but the introduction of my edition quoted Charles Dickens as saying that reading Adam Bede was an epoch in his life, and Alexandre Dumas called it the masterpiece of the century. I'm happy to agree with them. Most people say that Middlemarch is George Eliot's masterpiece. That was tragic and beautiful as well, but I was so much more drawn into the character's of Adam Bede. I loved them all (even Hetty) because even though they may have made bad choices, we were allowed to see things from their perspective and gain an understanding of why they did what they did. I love that about George Eliot. Dickens' characters sometimes seem almost like caricatures because they are either so good or so evil. I appreciate the humanity of Eliot. In fact, I understood Arthur Donnithorne all too well. He so wants to be a good person and have people think well of him, and yet he is weak when it really matters. This is a silly analogy, but I decided to make chocolate chip cookies one day while reading Adam Bede. I knew I really shouldn't because I would eat too many and not be able to stop, but when it came to the point I made them anyway and ate too many. I realized how like Arthur that was! He knew he shouldn't be doing what he was doing, and he talked himself out of it many times, but when it came to the point he still did it.It's interesting that although George Eliot personally seemed to have issues with the religion of her day, she can talk about religion so beautifully in her books. (I realize I have used the word "beautiful" way too many times, but oh if you read it, you will understand.) The year the story takes place is 1799, but the year it was published was (I believe) 1856. There was a lot of religious fervor going on at that time. People were searching and wanting to do what was right, and were dissatisfied with the nation's religion, even though there were many good and wonderful members of the clergy. Who could not love Mr. Irwine? And yet Dinah believed in so much more. I had ancestors in England around that time period who I believe felt the same way, and that's why they were so open to hear of the restoration of the gospel from the Mormon missionaries who were sent there.Mrs. Poyser was an absolute gem! I loved that she was able to tell off the Squire and hold her own with the woman-hating Mr. Massey (I wanted to tell him off, too - I wish we could have heard why he hated women so much.). I was grateful that George Eliot put in an epilogue so we could see what happened to the characters who were missing at the end of the book. This is an amazing book - everyone should read it.
    • 5/5
      Wow...what a read. What a classic. George Eliot has drawn characters here that will stick with you long after you have read the last page. The proud, honest, hard-working but also hot-tempered and unforgiving Adam Bede - the beautiful but vain and inexperienced Hetty Sorrel - the landlords grandson Arthur Donnithorne, who so easily deceives himself unable to fight temptation, and the merciful Methodist preacher Dinah Morris - and then - as a voice of experience -you have the kind and wise preacher and the I-will-tell-the-truth-no-matter-what Mrs. Poyser. Her "lectures" have a profound effect - not least when the landlord come to visit with another scheme. Well, it's the thought-life of the characters that I so enjoy - their struggles with faith, love, temptation, forgiveness, loss - Eliot has such a keen understanding of the human nature, it's flaws and strengths - and although an agnostic herself, Eliot has developed people of Christian faith with deep warmth, grace and honesty. It's remarkable. I like the way Adam will find his way of reconciling with God and other people - and the way Dinah have to learn to value the "earthly" aspect of the spiritual life. And how Arthur come to realise that he's not perfect after all. And Hetty.... Well, reader....you just have to find out for yourself about her.
    • 5/5
      This is the third novel by George Eliot that I have read, Middlemarch and Mill on the Floss being the other two. This book was published in 1859 so it is earlier than Mill on the Floss by a year and by 13 years than Middlemarch. I suppose Middlemarch is a more sophisticated novel but I liked Mill on the Floss better and now I like Adam Bede better than either of them. Maybe I’ll always like the last George Eliot that I have read the best until I read another one. I think I have at least 6 more to read so that should take me some time.As the title implies the principal character of the book is Adam Bede, a master carpenter in the village of Hayslope, situated in farming country which Eliot calls Loamshire. However, the real stars of the story are two young women, Hetty and Dinah. Hetty is very attractive and conscious of it. She is vain, somewhat silly and very superficial. Dinah, on the other hand, is subdued, intelligent and religious. In fact, she is a Methodist lay preacher. Hetty and Dinah are both orphans and, at the start of the book, living with their relatives, the Poysers. Mr. Poyser is Hetty’s uncle and Mrs. Poyser is Dinah’s aunt. Dinah is only staying for a while with the Poysers but Hetty has been living with them for seven years. Adam Bede is in love with Hetty and his brother, Seth, is in love with Dinah. Adam has not spoken of his love to Hetty as he is not in a position to offer a home to her. Seth has asked Dinah to marry him but although Dinah is fond of him she tells him she believes she is called to continue preaching and leave aside husband and children for ever.Adam and Seth still live with their parents. Their father was a carpenter as well but has taken to drink and he and Adam do not get along. Their mother is a querulous old woman who prefers Adam over Seth even though Seth is a good son to her. The night the story begins Adam comes home to find that his father is out drinking and has not made the casket that is promised for the morrow. He stays up all night to make it and when the morning comes he and Seth deliver it and then find that their father drowned in the stream by the house during the night. When the news reaches the Poysers, Dinah immediately sets out to comfort Mrs. Bede while Hetty hardly takes in the news. Hetty is thinking about Arthur Donnithorne, the young heir to the local estate, who has been flirting with her.Arthur is very well liked and most of the tenantry can hardly wait until he takes over the estate from his grandfather. He is in the militia at present but is home recovering from a broken arm. He is smitten by Hetty’s looks and thinks to pass the time by romancing her. To his credit, he has no idea that Adam, one of his best friends, has feelings for Hetty. When Adam sees Hetty and Arthur kissing he is jealous but also upset for Hetty’s character. Adam and Arthur come to blows but Arthur is persuaded that he has treated Hetty badly and he agrees to write a letter to Hetty telling her that she must not hope there is any future for the two of them. Then he leaves the county and Adam proposes to Hetty. Hetty accepts him because she desperately wants to be doing something else. Before Hetty and Adam can be married, Hetty realizes she is pregnant and she decides to go to Arthur in Windsor.The pace of the story really picks up here, more than half way through the book and I could hardly put it down. However, the first part is very important for establishing the characters and their motives. Plot is important in Eliot’s books but so is characterization. She is also excellent at describing scenes so that I had a clear picture of the countryside and the houses.There is tragedy here but there is also romance and even some comedy. And for someone who lived with her partner without the benefit of marriage herself she seems to laud marriage. At the end of chapter 54, when Adam and Dinah have agreed to marry, there is this sentence:What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life – to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?Of course, that sentence could also apply to unmarried couples such as she and George Lewes but it is a wonderful description of the blessing that a loving relationship is, whether the couple are married, common-law, straight or gay. And to think that Eliot said this over 150 years ago. It just shows that the power of love is eternal.
    • 5/5
      George Eliot (aka Marian Evans) was so far ahead of her contemporaries. Her realist novels read as if they had been written a hundred years later. Of course, she skirts around some of the more difficult subjects in Adam Bede: the relations between Hetty and Arthur are only hinted at, and the murder of the child is related after the fact.But her characterizations are so much more realistic than anything that Dickens produced it is hard to even draw a comparison. Pip seems a caricature next to Adam Bede. And all of Dickens' female characters lack the depth of a Hetty or even a Mrs. Poyser from Adam Bede.An excellent novel, well worth reading again and again.
    • 1/5
      Did not finish. Which surprised me as I've loved other Eliot novels such as Daniel Deronda and Middlemarch. This one completely failed to grab me.
    • 4/5
      If you like Middlemarch, you will like this story too.This was Eliot's first novel, and having already read Middlemarch that is pretty obvious. The writing is not as crisp. There are random chapters that seem to have nothing to do with anything. The first 75-100 pages are nothing but description (as typical of Eliot and the time period), but once you are through it the book moves very quickly. When I got towards the end, I did not want to put it down.The only real complaint I had was one of the characters, Seth Bede. Seth is Adam's brother. He is a doormat! He was a little frustrating. I wondered why Eliot even bothered with the character. He did not contribute much to the overall plot at all.At any rate, the book is good. If you like Middlemarch and Eliot read it. If you just want to try Eliot for the first time, go with Middlemarch over Adam Bede.
    • 4/5
      Adam personifies goodness, but he's in love with the shallow, self-obsessed Hetty. She is only interested in the material luxuries that the ego-maniacal Arthur can give her. This unfortunate love triangle leads to a tragedy none had anticipated. Eliot has a perfect ear for dialect. Beautifully written and emotionally satisfying.