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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
I very much enjoyed reading this book. It has the typical Mary-Eve dichotomy, but I was pleasantly surprised as I read to see that the man who gets Hetty pregnant faces negative consequences and most of the characters see Hetty as a young girl who was taken advantage of, rather than a whore. She of course faces worse consequences, but it was written in the mid-1800s after all.
As an aside, can someone please explain why we still call Mary Ann Evans "George Elliot?" We don't do this with any other female Victorian authors (that I know of) who had to use male pen names. I have been asking this question for 20 years and no one seems to know...
As an aside, can someone please explain why we still call Mary Ann Evans "George Elliot?" We don't do this with any other female Victorian authors (that I know of) who had to use male pen names. I have been asking this question for 20 years and no one seems to know...
Well written and humorous, but still just another good girl shamed by the gentry story.
it's a "sweet" Victorian book...love Adam Bede and Dinah...but I was amazed that Eliot could write about some of the other subject matter that she wrote about...and gave no hint--or at least, i didn't catch on until too late!
The dialect got a little tiresome to read and, of course, there's an awful lot of religion, but this was generally satisfying. It even got -almost- progressive when questioning the imbalance of blame for Hetty's fall.
M's. Eliot is, here, so unbearably patronising to the 'working class' that I was unable to finish it.
Wow. Just wow. I'm in awe of George Eliot's talent as a writer.
I loved this book. Absolutely loved it. She's masterful with words and she paints such exquisite pictures.
A mark that the writing is extraordinary, and that it has pierced me, is when the characters stop being characters and become real people, often more real to me then the people around me.
These people will be with me, always.
I could tell you so much more, about the book and the execution, the faultless, perfect mastery that is her writing. The control and skill she has as a writer.
But instead I'm going to urge to read her instead. I think she will be the writer that I'm going to recommend to everyone to read.
I loved this book. Absolutely loved it. She's masterful with words and she paints such exquisite pictures.
A mark that the writing is extraordinary, and that it has pierced me, is when the characters stop being characters and become real people, often more real to me then the people around me.
These people will be with me, always.
I could tell you so much more, about the book and the execution, the faultless, perfect mastery that is her writing. The control and skill she has as a writer.
But instead I'm going to urge to read her instead. I think she will be the writer that I'm going to recommend to everyone to read.
Spoilers abound! Read the Oxford World Classics editon, with Intro and Notes by Carol A. Martin (Boise State!). Many of the Notes are citations of the biblical quotations Eliot uses throughout the novel.
This is Eliot's first novel, in the traditional British Victorian 3 volume format. Prior to this she had only published essays, reviews, and a book of 3 novellas ("Clerical Scenes"). From the beginning of this book with the story of Dinah and the Methodist Dissenters it is no surprise that this was to have been the 4th novella in that collection.
Being a first novel there are some issues - for one, you must remind yourself that the title is "Adam Bede", NOT "Hetty"!
Took me about the first 80 pp to feel comfortable with who was who, and what was what. Decades ago, working on an MA in English Lit, I would have burned through this in 4 days - now it took me 4 weeks! Dialect dialog does not help with speed reading.
The final Book almost feels like an add-on, and approaches closest to the melodrama this novel could have been. It is rather amazing that even though published in 1859, nowhere does Eliot lambast Hetty for immorality from a religous POV. She does criticize her for her flippant and naive personality - but does not bring God into it at all.
Unh, Bartle's misogyny makes the hairs stand up on your neck!
Again, even though an early publication, we see the beginnings of some signature Eliot stylistic highlights. Such as, there is the character dialog, the narrator - and then there is commentary by what is obviouslyy George Eliot, the author. So much for Post Modern "the author is not part of the text".
This novel was hugely popular at the time of publication, in part because in 1859 it offered the British reading public a nostalgic look at an agrarian nation from the turn of the Century that now existed only in their memories. I did not find that nostalgia to be all that attractive, especially with the story of Hetty so prominant in 2/3rd's of the novel.
A couple of weeks of more modern reading, and then on to "Mill on the Floss". "Romola" is the one that scares me!
This is Eliot's first novel, in the traditional British Victorian 3 volume format. Prior to this she had only published essays, reviews, and a book of 3 novellas ("Clerical Scenes"). From the beginning of this book with the story of Dinah and the Methodist Dissenters it is no surprise that this was to have been the 4th novella in that collection.
Being a first novel there are some issues - for one, you must remind yourself that the title is "Adam Bede", NOT "Hetty"!
Took me about the first 80 pp to feel comfortable with who was who, and what was what. Decades ago, working on an MA in English Lit, I would have burned through this in 4 days - now it took me 4 weeks! Dialect dialog does not help with speed reading.
The final Book almost feels like an add-on, and approaches closest to the melodrama this novel could have been. It is rather amazing that even though published in 1859, nowhere does Eliot lambast Hetty for immorality from a religous POV. She does criticize her for her flippant and naive personality - but does not bring God into it at all.
Unh, Bartle's misogyny makes the hairs stand up on your neck!
Again, even though an early publication, we see the beginnings of some signature Eliot stylistic highlights. Such as, there is the character dialog, the narrator - and then there is commentary by what is obviouslyy George Eliot, the author. So much for Post Modern "the author is not part of the text".
This novel was hugely popular at the time of publication, in part because in 1859 it offered the British reading public a nostalgic look at an agrarian nation from the turn of the Century that now existed only in their memories. I did not find that nostalgia to be all that attractive, especially with the story of Hetty so prominant in 2/3rd's of the novel.
A couple of weeks of more modern reading, and then on to "Mill on the Floss". "Romola" is the one that scares me!
Very good writing and rather emotional. I enjoyed the insight into a lost lifestyle set in pre-industrial England. Personally I struggled to sympathise much with Hetty and was behind Dinah all the way.
Si vede che è il primo libro, o quasi, della Eliot, non tanto per come sia scritto, quanto piuttosto per la retorica moralista che prendendo spunto dalla storia lo accompagna. Sarà anche per questo che "gli antieroi" del libro mi stavano assolutamente più simpatici dei protagonisti. Vale comunque la pena di leggerlo per immegersi in quelle lande tipicamente inglesi di cui i romanzi vittoriani sono così intrisi, quasi viene voglia di comprarsi un cottage e trasferirsi nella perfida albione, ma mi accontenterò di averli buttati fuori dagli europei ;)
There's no doubt about it - George Eliot is a superb storyteller. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.