A review by cattytrona
Adam Bede by George Eliot

4.0

Extremely charmed and impressed by Eliot out of this. Am looking forward to reading more of her.

Took some notes duing the first half:
  • gorgeous country summer
  • eliot is a funny, interesting narrator, i love the little interjections, and the shock reveal of her (assumed him?) knowing adam tickled me
  • i like how this lets people be a little stupid, and i find their stupidities and vanities very endearing, convincing, transcendent of time, and ultimately, funny

I specify the first half because 3/4 of the way in, everything changes and suddenly, what could have been a whole book in itself emerges as its key incident.
So, some of the comments become significantly less relevant, and the tone gets darker.
Some reflections on that, then, under spoilers:
  • There’s a world where this book’s called Hetty Sorrel, and it’s not that far away. Hetty’s sort of an astounding little piece of empathy, or at least that’s how she reads to me. Her vanities are given time and focus and therefore rise to validity. She makes, and is made by, mistakes entirely down to her youth and naivety, which she should be left alone to make in peace, instead of on this stage (?) of male interest. She is the most important character of Adam Bede, for me. 
  • The pacing of the chapter lengths is so good, something which really comes to the fore during the arrest/trial scene. Shed a tear or two when Hetty and Dinah come out for the execution.
  • I think the last section is hasty and doesn’t work as well as everything else. Maybe because I was so bought into Hetty, maybe because of the languid pace of earlier parts, but I don’t think Adam and Dinah get enough time to matter.