ADAM BEDE (1859)

A novel by George Eliot. The setting is a village in the English Midlands, and the events take place at the beginning of the 19 Century. Adam Bede is the village carpenter, a young man of stern morals and great strength of character; he is in love with Hetty Sorrel, the vain and frivolous niece of a farmer, Martin Poyser. She is seduced by a village squire. Another principal character is the young and beautiful Dinah Morris, a Methodist preacher, whom Adam marries after Hetty has been transported for the murder of her child. The novel belongs to the early phase of George Eliot’s art when her principal subject was the rural civilization which had been the background of her youth; the fine parts of the novel are those scenes, such as the Poyser household, which are directly concerned with his way of life.