Furthermore, the characters are believable and realistic and if you enjoy books that can transfer you into a different world then this is a book for you.

However, this should not hinder you from reading the novel, because it is really interesting and well written. Moreover, all the characters in the book, with the exception of the wealthy and well-educated, speak in dialect, which I found especially difficult to process since I am not a native English speaker, but my guess is that even native speakers will have some problems with a dialect from the 18th century. If you plan on reading the novel you should be prepared for long passages of philosophical analysis. The author is always present and she states her personal opinions without condemning anyone, not ever Hetty who end ups killing her own child in order to save herself. She does not simply state the events of the story but she also explains why these particular events happen in that specific cultural and historical moment. Her narration moves between realism and its various processes. George Eliot’s (or should I say Evans?’) writing is superb and her approach to the story is what makes Adam Bede such a ‘serious’ novel.

Adam Bede (BBC, 1991) starring Iain Glen as Adam Bede, Patsy Kensit as Hetty Sorrel and Susannah Harker as Dinah MorrisĪlthough the story might resemble that of a soap opera the similarities end there. We have the poor, hard-working guy, Adam, and the rich spoiled boy who seems unable to control himself, Captain Donithorne, and finally we have Dinah the saint who kind of saves the day in the end. Almost every male is in love with Hetty and no ones realises that she might be pretty, but she is full of herself and she doesn’t even realise in what way her actions might affect herself and other people. I am not going to give you more details about the plot because I always make it sound like a bad soap opera and in some ways I think that that is exactly what it is.

It follows four characters the beautiful but superficial Hetty Sorrel, the young squire who seduces her Arthur Donnithorne, the Methodist preacher Dinah Morris, who is described as the complete opposite of Hetty, and the hard-working Adam Bede who is so in love with Hetty that unconsciously turns a blind eye to all her faults. On a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a Methodist preacher, and the original of Dinah Morris of the novel, of a confession of child-murder, made to her by a girl in prison (The Oxford Companion of English Literature 1967). Adam Bede was first published in 1859 and it is the writer’s first novel.

As I am sure you already know the name George Eliot is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, who decided to sign her books using a male name because at the time women were thought to be incapable of serious writing.

Bbc adam bede