Adam Bede
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| Author | George Eliot |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1859 |
| Media Type | Print () |
| ISBN | ISBN |
Adam Bede is George Eliot's first novel, published pseudonymously in 1859 despite the fact that Eliot (whose real name was Mary Ann Evans) was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time, translating into English and publishing highly influential and significant texts (such as David Friedrich Strauss's "Das Leben Jesu" in 1846). Only a year previously she had published Scenes of Clerical Life, further establishing her intellectual prominence. As her first novel, Adam Bede was a great success with both critics and public alike. It remains one of the Victorian Era's best examples of the realist novel (see Realism (arts)).
The story's plot follows four characters rural lives in the fictional community of Hayslopea rural, pastoral and close-knit community in 1799. The novel revolves around a love triangle between beautiful but thoughtless Hetty Sorrel, Captain Arthur Donnithorne, the young squire who seduces her, Adam Bede, her unacknowledged lover, and Dinah, Hetty's cousin, a fervent Methodist lay preacher.
Adam is a local carpenter, in love with Hetty. She is attracted to the local squire's grandson and falls in love with him. When Adam interrupts a tryst between them, Adam and Arthur fight. Arthur leaves Hayslop to return to his militia. After he leaves, Hetty discovers she is pregnant. She agrees to marry Adam but shortly before their marriage, has second thoughts and leaves in search of Arthur. She cannot find him; unwilling to return to the village and shame her family, she delivers her baby anonymously. She kills the child by abandoning it in a field, where it dies of exposure.
She is caught and tried for child murder. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang. When Arthur Donnithorne, on leave from the militia for his grandfather's funeral, hears of her impending execution, he races to the court and has the sentence commuted to transportation.
Ultimately, Adam and Dinah, who has always loved the carpenter, marry and live peacefully with his family.
External links
- Etext and study guide with summary, analysis and quizzes.
- Adam Bede online, by the Gutenberg Project
Categories: English novels | 1859 novels | Historical novels | George Eliot novels | Masterpiece Theatre