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''Adam Bede'' was the
first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
by Mary Ann Evans (
George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
), and was published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time. The novel has remained in print ever since and is regularly used in university studies of 19th-century English literature. She described the novel as, “A country story full of the breath of cows and scent of hay”.


Plot summary

According to '' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (1967), : "the plot is founded on a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
preacher, and the original of
Dinah Morris Dinah Morris is a major character in George Eliot's novel '' Adam Bede'' (1859); a Methodist lay preacher, she was modelled on Eliot's aunt Elizabeth Evans. Dinah visits the fictional community of Hayslope — a rural, pastoral and close-knit commu ...
of the novel, of a confession of child-murder, made to her by a girl in prison." The novel follows the lives of four characters in the fictional community of Hayslope—a rural, pastoral, and close-knit community—in 1799. The novel revolves around a love "rectangle" among the beautiful but self-absorbed Hetty Sorrel; Captain
Arthur Donnithorne ''Adam Bede'' was the first novel by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), and was published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time. The novel has remained in print ev ...
, the young
squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a ...
who seduces her; Adam Bede, her unacknowledged suitor; and Dinah Morris, Hetty's cousin, a fervent, virtuous and beautiful
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
lay preacher. Adam, a local carpenter much admired for his integrity and intelligence, is in love with Hetty. She is attracted to Arthur, the local squire's charming grandson and heir, and falls in love with him. When Adam interrupts a tryst between them, Adam and Arthur fight. Arthur agrees to give up Hetty and leaves Hayslope to return to his militia. After he leaves, Hetty Sorrel agrees to marry Adam but shortly before their marriage, discovers that she is pregnant. In desperation, she leaves in search of Arthur but cannot find him. Unwilling to return to the village on account of the shame and ostracism she would have to endure, she delivers her baby with the assistance of a friendly woman she encounters. She subsequently abandons the infant in a field but not being able to bear the child's cries, she tries to retrieve the infant. However, she is too late, the infant having already died of exposure. Hetty is caught and tried for child murder. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang. Dinah enters the prison and pledges to stay with Hetty until the end. Her compassion brings about Hetty's contrite confession. When Arthur Donnithorne, on leave from the militia for his grandfather's funeral, hears of her impending execution, he races to the court and has the sentence commuted to
transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipel ...
. Ultimately, Adam and Dinah, who gradually become aware of their mutual love, marry and live peacefully with his family.


Allusions/references to other works

The importance of
Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's '' ...
's ''
Lyrical Ballads ''Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems'' is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in litera ...
'' to the way ''Adam Bede'' is written has often been noted. Like Wordsworth's poems, ''Adam Bede'' features minutely detailed empirical and psychological observations about illiterate "common folk" who, because of their greater proximity to nature than to culture, are taken as emblematic of human nature in its more pure form. So behind its humble appearance, this is a novel of great ambition, seeking to manifest in novelistic form a key principle of Wordsworth's aesthetic philosophy.
Genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attache ...
and the novel arose together as middle-class art forms and retained close connections until the end of the nineteenth century. According to Richard Stang, it was a French treatise of 1846 on Dutch and Flemish painting that first popularised the application of the term realism to fiction. Stang, ''The Theory of the Novel in England'', p. 149, refers to Arsène Houssaye, Histoire de la peinture flamande et hollandaise (1846; 2d ed., Paris: Jules Hetzel, 1866). Houssaye speaks (p, 179) of Terborch's "gout tout hollandais, empreint de poesie realiste", and argues that "l'oeuvre de Gerard de Terburg est le roman intime de la Hollande, comme l'oeuvre de Gerard Dow en est le roman familiere.", and certainly it is with Dutch,
Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...
, and English genre painting that George Eliot's realism is most often compared. She herself invites the comparison in chapter 17 of ''Adam Bede'', and
Mario Praz Mario Praz (; September 6, 1896, Rome – March 23, 1982, Rome) was an Italian-born critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, ''The Romantic Agony'' (1933), was a comprehensive survey of the decadent, ...
applies it to all her works in his study of ''The Hero in Eclipse in Victorian Fiction''.


Literary significance and criticism

Immediately recognised as a significant literary work, ''Adam Bede'' has enjoyed a largely positive critical reputation since its publication. An anonymous 1859 review in '' The Athenaeum'' praised it as a "novel of the highest class," and ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...
'' called it "a first-rate novel." An anonymous review by
Anne Mozley Anne Mozley (17 September 1809 – 27 June 1891)Albert Frederick Pollard. ''Anne Mozley'' Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 39. p. 249. was a British author and critic. She lived in Derby and the small village of Barrow-u ...
was the first to speculate that the novel was probably written by a woman.Sister as Journalist: The Almost Anonymous Career of Anne Mozley
Ellen Jordan, Victorian Periodicals Review, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Fall, 2004), pp. 315–341, Published by: Research Society for Victorian Periodicals
Contemporary reviewers, often influenced by nostalgia for the earlier period represented in ''Bede'', enthusiastically praised Eliot's characterisations and realistic representations of rural life.
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
wrote: "The whole country life that the story is set in, is so real, and so droll and genuine, and yet so selected and polished by art, that I cannot praise it enough to you." (Hunter, S. 122) In fact, in early criticism, the tragedy of infanticide has often been overlooked in favour of the peaceful idyllic world and familiar personalities Eliot recreated. Other critics have been less generous.
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was th ...
, among others, resented the narrator's interventions. In particular, Chapter 15 has fared poorly among scholars because of the author's/narrator's moralising and meddling in an attempt to sway readers' opinions of Hetty and Dinah. Other critics have objected to the resolution of the story. In the final moments, Hetty, about to be executed for infanticide, is saved by her seducer, Arthur Donnithorne. Critics have argued that this ''
deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...
'' ending negates the moral lessons learned by the main characters. Without the eleventh hour reprieve, the suffering of Adam, Arthur, and Hetty would have been more realistically concluded. In addition, some scholars feel that Adam's marriage to Dinah is another instance of the author's/narrator's intrusiveness. These instances have been found to directly conflict with the otherwise realistic images and events of the novel.


Characters

* The Bede family: ** Adam Bede is described as a tall, stalwart, moral, and unusually competent carpenter. He is 26 years old at the beginning of the novel, and bears an "expression of large-hearted intelligence." ** Seth Bede is Adam's younger brother, and is also a carpenter, but he is not particularly competent, and "his glance, instead of being keen, is confiding and benign." ** Lisbeth Bede is Adam's and Seth's mother. She is "an anxious, spare, yet vigorous old woman, clean as a snowdrop." ** Thias (Matthias) Bede is Adam's and Seth's father. He has become an alcoholic, and drowns in Chapter IV while returning from a tavern. ** Gyp is Adam's dog, who follows his every move, and looks "up in his master's face with patient expectation." * The Poyser family: ** Martin Poyser and his wife Rachel rent Hall Farm from Squire Donnithorne and have turned it into a very successful enterprise. ** Marty and Tommy Poyser are their sons. ** Totty Poyser is their somewhat spoiled and frequently petulant toddler. ** "Old Martin" Poyser is Mr. Poyser's elderly father, who lives in retirement with his son's family. ** Hetty Sorrel is Mr. Poyser's orphaned niece, who lives and works at the Poyser farm. Her beauty, as described by George Eliot, is the sort "which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women." **
Dinah Morris Dinah Morris is a major character in George Eliot's novel '' Adam Bede'' (1859); a Methodist lay preacher, she was modelled on Eliot's aunt Elizabeth Evans. Dinah visits the fictional community of Hayslope — a rural, pastoral and close-knit commu ...
is another orphaned niece of the Poysers. She is also beautiful – "It was one of those faces that make one think of white flowers with light touches of colour on their pure petals" – but has chosen to become an itinerant
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
preacher, and dresses very plainly. * The Irwine family: ** Adolphus Irwine is the
Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
of Broxton. He is patient and tolerant, and his expression is a "mixture of bonhomie and distinction". He lives with his mother and sisters. ** Mrs. Irwine, his mother, is "clearly one of those children of royalty who have never doubted their right divine and never met with any one so absurd as to question it." ** Pastor Irwine's youngest sister, Miss Anne, is an invalid. His gentleness is illustrated by a passage in which he takes the time to remove his boots before going upstairs to visit her, lest she be disturbed by noise. She and the pastor's other sister, Kate, are unmarried. * The Donnithorne family: **
Squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a ...
Donnithorne owns an estate. ** Arthur Donnithorne, his grandson, stands to inherit the estate; he is twenty years old at the opening of the novel. He is a handsome and charming sportsman. ** Miss Lydia Donnithorne, the old squire's daughter, is Arthur's unmarried aunt. * Other characters ** Bartle Massey is the local schoolteacher, a misogynist bachelor who has taught Adam Bede. ** Mr. Craig is the gardener at the Donnithorne estate. ** Jonathan Burge is Adam's employer at a carpentry workshop. Some expect his daughter Mary to make a match with Adam Bede. ** Villagers in the area include Ben Cranage, Chad Cranage, Chad's daughter Bess, and Joshua Rann.


Adaptations

In September 1885 a theatre adaptation of Adam Bede played at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. In 1918, a silent film adaptation entitled '' Adam Bede'' was made, directed by
Maurice Elvey Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He ...
and starring Bransby Williams and Ivy Close. In 1991, the BBC produced a television version of ''Adam Bede'' starring Iain Glen,
Patsy Kensit Patricia Jude Kensit (born 4 March 1968) is an English actress and was the lead singer of the pop band Eighth Wonder in the 1980s. Beginning her career as a child actor, Kensit gained attention when she acted in a string of commercials for Bird ...
,
Susannah Harker Susannah Harker (born 26 April 1965) is an English film, television, and theatre actor. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for her role as Mattie Storin in '' House of Cards''. She played Jane Bennet in the 1995 TV adaptation of ...
, James Wilby and
Julia McKenzie Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie (born 17 February 1941) is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAF ...
. It was aired as part of the
Masterpiece Theatre ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaim ...
anthology in 1992. In 2001,
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...
broadcast an adaptation of the novel with
Katherine Igoe Katherine Igoe is an Irish actress. Early life and training A native of Abbeyleix, County Laois, Igoe first studied computer science at University College Dublin. Having decided on a career change, she moved to Edinburgh where she trained in a ...
as Hetty, Vicki Liddelle as Dinah, Thomas Arnold and
Crawford Logan Crawford Logan is a British actor best known for his work in radio. In 2006 he became the latest actor to play the eponymous hero Paul Temple in a revival of the long-running mystery series on BBC radio. In 2009 he narrated the BBC Radio 4 Book o ...
as Mr Irwine. This adaptation was later re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7 and
BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...
in a fifteen-part version of 15-minute episodes.


References


Bibliography


''Adam Bede'' online, by the Gutenberg Project
*
Adam Bede
' free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the
George Eliot Archive
' * * * '' The Oxford Companion to English Literature'' (1967)


External links

* *
Adam Bede
' free PDF of Blackwood's 1878 Cabinet Edition (the critical standard with Eliot's final corrections) at the
George Eliot Archive
' {{Authority control 1859 British novels 1859 debut novels British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into plays British novels adapted into television shows English historical novels Fiction set in 1799 Novels adapted into radio programs Novels by George Eliot Novels set in the 1790s Victorian novels Works published under a pseudonym