Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Adam Bede was the best-seller that made George Eliot’s name ... and enabled her to admit she was Marion Evans. I suspect that its success was due to it being so authentically set in an English rural village, the accurate use of dialect, and the incredibly true-to life characters. It was written in a world in which Dickens was pre-eminent, but his exaggerated characters are caricatures compared with those in Adam Bede which feel like portraits of real people (except perhaps for the woman-hating schoolmaster).
Following the lead of Eliot’s beloved Walter Scott, this is a historical novel. It is set in the time between the Napoleonic French troops quitting Egypt (about 1800) and the Treaty of Paris (about 1802); it references these events as well as Nelson, Arkwright’s mills and the recent publication of ‘The Ancient Mariner’ (first published in 1798).
The structure is conventional for Victorian novels of the time. Originally published in three volumes, each of two ‘Books’, it takes a long time building up the situation before coming to the meat of the story which revolves around Hetty, a very pretty young farm girl with dreams above her ‘station’, who catches the eye of the Squire’s grandson and heir, a man rich enough to be a rogue, and also the worthy goody-goody Adam Bede, a jobbing carpenter with ambition. The main characters are mostly good, although Adam learns to be less strict about what is right and what is wrong; the only characters who are given moral dilemmas are those who are tempted and fall.
But there are some glorious characters among the lesser parts. Mrs Poyser the farmer’s wife has a marvellous line in garrulous invective which leads her to give even the Squire a tongue-lashing, and some brilliant lines, as does Adma's mum.
It's a big book and the first third is, perhaps, a little slow: Eliot takes her time building up the situation. But once it gets going it is a reasonably quick read. Although the plot is really rather predictable to modern eyes, and the goody-goodies are perhaps a little too perfect, there is bags of verisimiltude and some great comedy.
Following the lead of Eliot’s beloved Walter Scott, this is a historical novel. It is set in the time between the Napoleonic French troops quitting Egypt (about 1800) and the Treaty of Paris (about 1802); it references these events as well as Nelson, Arkwright’s mills and the recent publication of ‘The Ancient Mariner’ (first published in 1798).
The structure is conventional for Victorian novels of the time. Originally published in three volumes, each of two ‘Books’, it takes a long time building up the situation before coming to the meat of the story which revolves around Hetty, a very pretty young farm girl with dreams above her ‘station’, who catches the eye of the Squire’s grandson and heir, a man rich enough to be a rogue, and also the worthy goody-goody Adam Bede, a jobbing carpenter with ambition. The main characters are mostly good, although Adam learns to be less strict about what is right and what is wrong; the only characters who are given moral dilemmas are those who are tempted and fall.
But there are some glorious characters among the lesser parts. Mrs Poyser the farmer’s wife has a marvellous line in garrulous invective which leads her to give even the Squire a tongue-lashing, and some brilliant lines, as does Adma's mum.
It's a big book and the first third is, perhaps, a little slow: Eliot takes her time building up the situation. But once it gets going it is a reasonably quick read. Although the plot is really rather predictable to modern eyes, and the goody-goodies are perhaps a little too perfect, there is bags of verisimiltude and some great comedy.