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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!