Adam Bede

Carpenter Adam Bede is in love with the beautiful Hetty Sorrel, but unknown to him, he has a rival, in the local squire's son Arthur Donnithorne. Hetty is soon attracted by Arthur's seductive charm and they begin to meet in secret. The relationship is to have tragic consequences that reach far beyond the couple themselves, touching not just Adam Bede, but many others, not least, pious Methodist Preacher Dinah Morris. A tale of seduction, betrayal, love and deception, the plot of Adam Bede has the quality of an English folk song. Within the setting of Hayslope, a small, rural community, Eliot brilliantly creates a sense of earthy reality, making the landscape itself as vital a presence in the novel as that of her characters themselves.

About the Author

Mary Ann Evans (1819-80) began her literary career as a translator and later editor of the Westminster Review. In 1857, she published SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE, the first of eight novels she would publish under the name of 'George Eliot', including THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, MIDDLEMARCH, and DANIEL DERONDA.