Eliot's first full-length novel is set in a farming community in the English Midlands at the end of the eighteenth century. Adam Bede is an honest, hard-working carpenter who loves the young dairymaid Hetty Sorrel, though she has her eye on the charming young squire Arthur Donnithorne. Around them are the devout Methodist preacher Dinah Morris and the village people of Hayslope. The novel looks closely at vanity, duty and the long reach of our choices, and it is admired for its affectionate, realistic picture of rural life.
Quotes
I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish: God Almighty made ’em to match the men.”
Imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity.
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.
Love has a way of cheating itself consciously, like a child who plays at solitary hide-and-seek; it is pleased with assurances that it all the while disbelieves.