Adam Bede

Adam Bede by George Eliot (1905)

Adam Bede is set in the village of Hayslope on the eighteenth of June, 1799. It opens in Jonathan Burge's workshop, where the carpenter Adam Bede, a tall, strong, dark-haired and principled workman, works alongside his gentler younger brother Seth, a Methodist. Seth has forgotten the panels of a door, and the mocking Wiry Ben Cranage is ready to jeer until Adam stops him. At six the men drop their tools, and Adam, who hates to see work slighted, grumbles at them. He then goes off with his dog Gyp. That evening the villagers gather on the Green, where the Methodist preacher Dinah Morris, niece of Mrs. Poyser of the Hall Farm, is to speak. A passing horseman watches. He is struck by her simple, unselfconscious manner. She preaches that the Gospel is good news for the poor and moves her hearers to tears. Bessy Cranage, the blacksmith's vain daughter, throws away her ear-rings. Afterward Seth walks Dinah toward the Hall Farm and asks her to marry him. She refuses, saying God has called her to a life of ministry at Snowfield. She also mentions Hetty Sorrel, the Poysers' pretty niece, on whom Adam's heart is set. At home Adam finds that his father Thias, a drinker, has not finished a coffin promised for Broxton. Adam works through the night to make it himself, while his mother Lisbeth weeps and pleads. He resolves to bear his family's burdens, and twice he hears a strange rap at the door. In the morning the brothers carry the coffin to Broxton. On their return they find their father's body drowned against the willow by the brook. At Broxton Parsonage the easygoing rector, Mr. Irwine, plays chess with his imposing mother. The parish clerk Joshua Rann comes to complain about the Methodists, and Mr. Irwine advises tolerance. Rann also brings word of Thias's death and the family's wish for a grave by the White Thorn. Young Captain Arthur Donnithorne, the squire's heir, arrives and speaks warmly of Adam. He and Mr. Irwine then ride to the Hall Farm. There Mrs. Poyser, a sharp-tongued housekeeper, scolds her servants and her niece. Arthur lingers in the dairy to admire Hetty, who is flattered by his attention. Mr. Irwine talks with Dinah and is impressed by her sincerity. She tells how she first came to preach. Hetty, who has been dreaming of Arthur, scarcely reacts to the news of the drowning. Mr. Irwine gently warns Arthur against filling her head with notions. Dinah goes to the Bedes' cottage to comfort Lisbeth. With quiet sympathy she calms the grieving widow and stays the night. The next morning Adam comes down, first thinking foolishly that the footsteps might be Hetty's. He finds Dinah sweeping the kitchen, and he sees her with new interest.

By George Eliot · First published 1905 · Genre: Realist fiction, Provincial novel, Domestic novel · 56 chapters · 256,867 words

First lines

With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader. With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter and builder, in the village of Hayslope, as it appeared on the eighteenth of June, in the year of our Lord 1799.

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realist fiction · pastoral novel · omniscient narrator · rural English village life · Hayslope · Loamshire · late eighteenth century England · Methodism · women preachers · religious dissent · carpentry and woodworking · working-class labour

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