Adam Bede George Eliot

“Adam Bede” is a novel about human character, about individuals in relationship to one another in family groups and in larger social organizations of their world. The reader may sympathize with all the characters of such a novel, but will not identify closely with any one of them.

The novel is set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century. It is about the seduction of a beautiful country girl by the local squire. “Adam Bede” is, indeed, a pioneering record of a rural world that we have lost. The movement of the narration between social realism, the exploration of motives, and the constant authorial presence all bespeak an art that strives to connect the fictional with the actual. The novelist takes on the persona of the narrator and goes into a comprehensive exposition of her opinions in front of the reader as it explores themes of beauty, hard work, family ties, and a lot more.

An important theme running through the novel is that, despite the suffering some characters endure, life before the industrial revolution in England was something of a paradise. Although the industrial revolution is already in progress in the world of “Adam Bede”, the modern world has hardly touched the peaceful village of “Hayslope”.