description: 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, 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, George Eliot brilliantly creates a sense of earthy reality, making the landscape as vital a presence in the novel as that of the characters themselves.Eliot probes deeply into the psychology of commonplace people caught in the act of uncommon heroics. Alexandre Dumas called this novel 'the masterpiece of the century.'
language: English
title: Adam Bede
titlecomplete: Adam Bede
characters: Adam Bede, Dinah Morris, Arthur Donnithorne, Hetty Sorrel
genres: English Literature, Literature, Novels, Victorian, 19th Century, Romance, Classics, Historical Fiction, Fiction, British Literature
ratings_count: 25040
places: Hayslope
publisher: Signet Classics