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fionnualalirsdottir 's review for:
Adam Bede
by George Eliot
Reader, I ask you, what can be better than a long book full of good sentences?
That was a rhetorical question, of course—I think there is nothing better than good sentences following one on another, and this book is full of them.
But [b:Adam Bede|20563|Adam Bede|George Eliot|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1167298252l/20563._SY75_.jpg|21503633] also offers that extra ingredient readers generally can't resist: intrigue.
The intrigue is centered on the curious nature of the rules of attraction, which is no surprise as variations on the classic love triangle often feature in George Eliot's books. However in [b:Adam Bede|20563|Adam Bede|George Eliot|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1167298252l/20563._SY75_.jpg|21503633], the rules of attraction seem to stretch well beyond the usual three-sided figure. Instead we have a far more complicated situation:
SB loves DM who loves AB who loves HS who loves AD.
Five isolated points. There seems to be no way to bring them together, no way to build them into a useful shape, such as a house, for example. And yet Adam Bede, who is at the centre of the problematic, is a carpenter who is very good at calculating distances and angles and the correct weight of roof timbers. Come on, Adam, we say encouragingly, build that house! Make it happen.
Meanwhile, our mental business is carried on much in the same way as the business of the State: a great deal of hard work is done by agents who are not acknowledged. In a piece of machinery, too, I believe there is often a small unnoticeable wheel which has a great deal to do with the motion of the large obvious ones...the human soul is a very complex thing.
A little mental business, a little adjustment of wheels and cogs, and not forgetting some small heart-related 'agents' their owners hardly know exist, has to be carried out by several of the characters before Adam's house can be built. It is a very interesting process to watch.
The human heart is a very complex thing indeed.
That was a rhetorical question, of course—I think there is nothing better than good sentences following one on another, and this book is full of them.
But [b:Adam Bede|20563|Adam Bede|George Eliot|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1167298252l/20563._SY75_.jpg|21503633] also offers that extra ingredient readers generally can't resist: intrigue.
The intrigue is centered on the curious nature of the rules of attraction, which is no surprise as variations on the classic love triangle often feature in George Eliot's books. However in [b:Adam Bede|20563|Adam Bede|George Eliot|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1167298252l/20563._SY75_.jpg|21503633], the rules of attraction seem to stretch well beyond the usual three-sided figure. Instead we have a far more complicated situation:
SB loves DM who loves AB who loves HS who loves AD.
*……*……*……*……*
Five isolated points. There seems to be no way to bring them together, no way to build them into a useful shape, such as a house, for example. And yet Adam Bede, who is at the centre of the problematic, is a carpenter who is very good at calculating distances and angles and the correct weight of roof timbers. Come on, Adam, we say encouragingly, build that house! Make it happen.
Meanwhile, our mental business is carried on much in the same way as the business of the State: a great deal of hard work is done by agents who are not acknowledged. In a piece of machinery, too, I believe there is often a small unnoticeable wheel which has a great deal to do with the motion of the large obvious ones...the human soul is a very complex thing.
A little mental business, a little adjustment of wheels and cogs, and not forgetting some small heart-related 'agents' their owners hardly know exist, has to be carried out by several of the characters before Adam's house can be built. It is a very interesting process to watch.
The human heart is a very complex thing indeed.