A review by librarianna81
Adam Bede by George Eliot

3.0

I really enjoyed and was very intrigued by the story which related to the persecution of a woman accused of "child murder" (not abortion; this happened after it was already born), and how the people of the time reacted to the accusations and imprisonment. But I didn't find the book all that moving...and, in fact, I found the characters frustrating and rather one-dimensional. I thought the story was pretty bland and largely predictable, and I found I was angry at how saintly Adam's brother was about certain things (don't want to spoil anything). Every character had his or her caricature, and they stuck to it through to the end. And I am sometimes frustrated by George Eliot, because while I know that some of the things she writes about women was tongue-in-cheek (seeing as she wrote under a masculine nom de plume), the way her female characters are can b e pretty awfully stereotypical. Anyway, it was a quaint story, but I probably wouldn't recommend it. I feel like I have more to say, but I think I'm being more redundant than anything else right now, and not getting my point across. Blah.