Product Description

Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the eighteenth century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in 'the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis'. But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost. The movement of the narration between social realism and reflection on its own processes, the exploration of motives, and the constant authorial presence all bespeak an art that strives to connect the fictional with the actual.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28720 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Choice
"Superb scholarly edition of Eliot's Adam Bede ... An indispensable purchase for all academic libraries and large public libraries"

About the Author
Dr Valentine Cunningham is Professor of English, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is author of British Writers of the Thirties (OUP).

Customer Reviews

A gripping tale of a honourable life
Why hasn't anyone written a review for this book? Is it because it's a classic, and therefore one cannot praise it more? I thought it was wonderful. The story of the honest, upright and faithful Adam Bede and his quiet life beautifully unfolds, with deliciously scripted detail. One of the most remarkable things about the book is the that the delightful description does not prevent tension and drama from unfolding, but adds to the suspense of the various situations Adam finds himself in.

This is a classic because it's a really good read!
Right from the first scene, as the sunshine beams into the carpenter's workshop, there's a suggestion of idyllic English countryside about this novel, but, although some of the characters are idealised in places, George Eliot is interested in realism and the story turns on a tragedy which we still see in newspapers today. Despite this, Adam Bede is a good old-fashioned story in the sense that it leaves you gladder for having met its characters and feeling heart-whole from the experience of reading it.

Why bother?
I love George Eliot, who often shows an insight into the beauty and complexity of characters that astounds me. This book, however, shows very little of that. It is the story of one woman's seduction and the repurcussions of that, jutxtaposed with another woman's low-church morality and set in a backdrop of wholesome country life. It embodies a world view which Eliot herself later rejected.

If you want to read a book about seduction, read Hardy's Tess. If you want to read a book about the value of simple country morality, read Eliot's Silais Marner. Either way, unless you have a strong stomach for late Victoian nostalgia, you can give this one a miss.