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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Quite possibly the most tacked-on marriage at the end of a Victorian novel I've ever read (and that's really saying something)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Misogyny
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
George Eliot’s masterpiece is Middlemarch, but Adam Bede has always been my favorite Eliot novel. I’m not sure why this is. It might be because Bede was the first Eliot book I read. I doubt this, however, because the first Austen book I read was Pride and Prejudice, but my favorite Austen book is Persuasion. I understand why Middlemarch is a masterpiece, yet I find myself agreeing with Dumas pere in considering Bede to be the “masterpiece of the century”.
I first read Bede after watching the first part of a Masterpiece Theatre (remember when Cooke hosted it?) showing of the story. I only saw the first part and it ended with the fight between Adam and Arthur, where Adam knocks Arthur done and thinks he has killed the squire to be. I had to know what happened next so I went out and brought the book.
Since then I have read Bede far more than I have read Middlemarch, though I have never tracked down and brought the Masterpiece version of the story. There is a beauty and simplicity about Bede and yet it is a complex and deep story. It almost seems like a paradox, but it is not.
I find myself wondering how this book was received in general when it was first published. Like Scott’s Heart of the Midlothian, this work concerns a woman, a young girl, who embarks on an ill advised affair and finds herself pregnant. And yet, Eliot’s use of this plot is far superior to Scott, even to someone like me who considers Heart to be one of Scott’s best works, if not his best work. It is the use of this plot in Bede that make the book a masterpiece. It must be due to the fact that Eliot is a woman and knows far more about how much farmer’s niece would in fact know about her cycle. She makes very good use of the word dread.
It’s true that the title character is the central character. He is not a saint, he is not perfection; he is good people, perhaps a finer version of Othello. One feels for him, and he does have faults. His blind love of Hetty, and his quickness of temper. Dinah, too, as a few faults, and this stops her from being a total unlikable Mary Sue. The reader knows what is best for these two characters long before they do.
In many ways, however, the kennel of the story concerns Hetty and Arthur, and far more of Hetty. It is interesting for the narrator always points out Hetty’s faults to the reader. Hetty doesn’t seem like a particular nice or attractive person, especially when compared to Dinah. The narrator is right in pointing out that Hetty’s looks cause people to forgive and over look her other faults. Despite Hetty’s petty ways and her inability to tender feeling, both the narrator and the reader feel sympathy for her. I hesitate to say like. I don’t know even now if I like Hetty, but I feel sorry for her. Hetty does something stupid, but she plays a high price. Even before the modern era, with our debates or discussions about single mothers and how (or whether) to make fathers responsible, Eliot touches on it. Constrained by the time she lived in, Eliot cannot give it the graphic blow by blow that would be used today. This restraint, however, makes the story are the more tragic and touching. Even in the darkness of the tale, Eliot arranges to show the reader a degree of pity. Hetty might feel alone due to the shame, her family might cast her off, but she is not truly alone. At least not wholly. There are helpful strangers and Dinah. Of course, the reader still knows that Hetty is not in a good place, that society has by and large cast her off and has made no true provision for her.
Eliot does not fall into the trap that other authors, such as Hardy, have. We know that the relationship between Arthur and Hetty is consensual. Further, Arthur is treated far more gently than Alec in Tess. Perhaps this simplifies matters or cheapens the story as some critics have pointed out, but I don’t think it does. Arthur is close in age to Hetty, 21 to her 17. Older, more educated, but still young enough to make mistakes. It should also be noted that both lovers are in essence orphans. Because Arthur repents, because he suffers somewhat, he becomes likable. He can’t fully save Hetty, but he does not fully abandon her when he realizes what has happened. If anything, the book can be seen as a non flattering comment on society’s rigid rules, despite the fact that Eliot does not make Hetty and Arthur spotless lambs. Hetty is less likable, but far more real than say Hardy’s Tess.
The story of Arthur and Hetty shows how much and how little society has changed.
The lovers are not the only winning feature of this novel. There are wonderful descriptions and beautiful comments about people. The seeds of Middlemarch are here. There is a wonderful chapter about what makes a good clergyman and how things should be portrayed in literature. Beautiful and thought provoking lines, like “We are kinder to the brutes that love us than to the women that love us. Is it because the brutes are dumb?” The reader is given a picture of time and place that passes before the eyes, much like a movie.
I first read Bede after watching the first part of a Masterpiece Theatre (remember when Cooke hosted it?) showing of the story. I only saw the first part and it ended with the fight between Adam and Arthur, where Adam knocks Arthur done and thinks he has killed the squire to be. I had to know what happened next so I went out and brought the book.
Since then I have read Bede far more than I have read Middlemarch, though I have never tracked down and brought the Masterpiece version of the story. There is a beauty and simplicity about Bede and yet it is a complex and deep story. It almost seems like a paradox, but it is not.
I find myself wondering how this book was received in general when it was first published. Like Scott’s Heart of the Midlothian, this work concerns a woman, a young girl, who embarks on an ill advised affair and finds herself pregnant. And yet, Eliot’s use of this plot is far superior to Scott, even to someone like me who considers Heart to be one of Scott’s best works, if not his best work. It is the use of this plot in Bede that make the book a masterpiece. It must be due to the fact that Eliot is a woman and knows far more about how much farmer’s niece would in fact know about her cycle. She makes very good use of the word dread.
It’s true that the title character is the central character. He is not a saint, he is not perfection; he is good people, perhaps a finer version of Othello. One feels for him, and he does have faults. His blind love of Hetty, and his quickness of temper. Dinah, too, as a few faults, and this stops her from being a total unlikable Mary Sue. The reader knows what is best for these two characters long before they do.
In many ways, however, the kennel of the story concerns Hetty and Arthur, and far more of Hetty. It is interesting for the narrator always points out Hetty’s faults to the reader. Hetty doesn’t seem like a particular nice or attractive person, especially when compared to Dinah. The narrator is right in pointing out that Hetty’s looks cause people to forgive and over look her other faults. Despite Hetty’s petty ways and her inability to tender feeling, both the narrator and the reader feel sympathy for her. I hesitate to say like. I don’t know even now if I like Hetty, but I feel sorry for her. Hetty does something stupid, but she plays a high price. Even before the modern era, with our debates or discussions about single mothers and how (or whether) to make fathers responsible, Eliot touches on it. Constrained by the time she lived in, Eliot cannot give it the graphic blow by blow that would be used today. This restraint, however, makes the story are the more tragic and touching. Even in the darkness of the tale, Eliot arranges to show the reader a degree of pity. Hetty might feel alone due to the shame, her family might cast her off, but she is not truly alone. At least not wholly. There are helpful strangers and Dinah. Of course, the reader still knows that Hetty is not in a good place, that society has by and large cast her off and has made no true provision for her.
Eliot does not fall into the trap that other authors, such as Hardy, have. We know that the relationship between Arthur and Hetty is consensual. Further, Arthur is treated far more gently than Alec in Tess. Perhaps this simplifies matters or cheapens the story as some critics have pointed out, but I don’t think it does. Arthur is close in age to Hetty, 21 to her 17. Older, more educated, but still young enough to make mistakes. It should also be noted that both lovers are in essence orphans. Because Arthur repents, because he suffers somewhat, he becomes likable. He can’t fully save Hetty, but he does not fully abandon her when he realizes what has happened. If anything, the book can be seen as a non flattering comment on society’s rigid rules, despite the fact that Eliot does not make Hetty and Arthur spotless lambs. Hetty is less likable, but far more real than say Hardy’s Tess.
The story of Arthur and Hetty shows how much and how little society has changed.
The lovers are not the only winning feature of this novel. There are wonderful descriptions and beautiful comments about people. The seeds of Middlemarch are here. There is a wonderful chapter about what makes a good clergyman and how things should be portrayed in literature. Beautiful and thought provoking lines, like “We are kinder to the brutes that love us than to the women that love us. Is it because the brutes are dumb?” The reader is given a picture of time and place that passes before the eyes, much like a movie.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Me partway through: dang some of this language is giving Hardy. There’s probably something going on she’s being vague about and which will shock me in the next part.
The next part starts: oh, yeah. Very Hardy
The next part starts: oh, yeah. Very Hardy
challenging
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Not as into this one as my last couple Eliot books, but still found it compelling at times. Felt a little less complex/deep and also just a little boring in parts.
Content Warnings
Mary Ann Evans seemed to understand the intricacies, inconsistencies, and contradictions of human thought better than anyone.
At it’s core, I think this novel is about the things we devote ourselves in hope that it justifies our existence and maybe even leaves a legacy. Evans also understands and reveals plainly here how, once we’ve decided what that thing is that we devote ourselves to — whether it’s religion, a virtue, a trade, or even a person — our minds and egos will do just about anything to justify that devotion and maintain that hope.
I don’t necessarily subscribe to the idea that Hetty’s crime should absolve her or sympathy here. She was still manipulated and neglected. Sure, she’s vain and naive, but she was merely being what she was taught to be. On devoting ourselves to something, Hetty was taught to — and obediently did — devote herself to her beauty and prospect as a marriage candidate. This book for me falls short of its ultimate potential because of the way Hetty becomes a ghost in the last quarter of the novel, mentioned in the epilogue only briefly. It’s just a piece of the recipe of the too-sweet cake that is the ending of this novel. From the end of the chapter titled "The Last Moment" on it feels like a different work, and one that’s a little too clean.
Still, Eliot is ascending my rankings of prose writers, and this novel is full of wonderful moments of prose that I’ve saved. And while this is only my second novel by her (Middlemarch being the first), it seems clear that from this, her first novel, to the end, her thesis as George Eliot was that the lives most worth celebrating and investigating are the ones we encounter and live every day.
At it’s core, I think this novel is about the things we devote ourselves in hope that it justifies our existence and maybe even leaves a legacy. Evans also understands and reveals plainly here how, once we’ve decided what that thing is that we devote ourselves to — whether it’s religion, a virtue, a trade, or even a person — our minds and egos will do just about anything to justify that devotion and maintain that hope.
I don’t necessarily subscribe to the idea that Hetty’s crime should absolve her or sympathy here. She was still manipulated and neglected. Sure, she’s vain and naive, but she was merely being what she was taught to be. On devoting ourselves to something, Hetty was taught to — and obediently did — devote herself to her beauty and prospect as a marriage candidate. This book for me falls short of its ultimate potential because of the way Hetty becomes a ghost in the last quarter of the novel, mentioned in the epilogue only briefly. It’s just a piece of the recipe of the too-sweet cake that is the ending of this novel. From the end of the chapter titled "The Last Moment" on it feels like a different work, and one that’s a little too clean.
Still, Eliot is ascending my rankings of prose writers, and this novel is full of wonderful moments of prose that I’ve saved. And while this is only my second novel by her (Middlemarch being the first), it seems clear that from this, her first novel, to the end, her thesis as George Eliot was that the lives most worth celebrating and investigating are the ones we encounter and live every day.
In this, her first full length novel, George Eliot aimed to depict a recent but bygone age, namely one before the advent of the railway when rural communities were relatively isolated. The portrayal of this era rings true mainly thanks to Eliot’s wonderful ear for and transcription of the local dialect. Noteworthy are the Poysers and Adam Bede’s mother Lisbeth. Adam Bede himself is almost too good to be true, the strong, silent type whose emotions only once get the better of him when he discovers Arthur Donnithorne kissing Hetty. The other unblemished character is Dinah Morris and it is perhaps fitting that they eventually end up together.
Pretty Hetty’s innocence and silliness make her an easy prey for Donnithorne although Eliot clearly shows us that he was not mal-intentioned but rather weak. We don’t realize until Hetty reaches Windsor in her attempt to reach Arthur that she is pregnant and it does not seem to be uppermost in her mind either. This makes her abandoning of the baby more plausible and the punishment seems especially harsh. After all, she was only seventeen and her desire to go back to the farm and life as it had been is completely credible.
At times the narrator is over-intrusive, but that is a small price to pay for an absorbing story of a time long past.
Pretty Hetty’s innocence and silliness make her an easy prey for Donnithorne although Eliot clearly shows us that he was not mal-intentioned but rather weak. We don’t realize until Hetty reaches Windsor in her attempt to reach Arthur that she is pregnant and it does not seem to be uppermost in her mind either. This makes her abandoning of the baby more plausible and the punishment seems especially harsh. After all, she was only seventeen and her desire to go back to the farm and life as it had been is completely credible.
At times the narrator is over-intrusive, but that is a small price to pay for an absorbing story of a time long past.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated