Yet it is Hetty’s relationship with Arthur that ultimately scuttles Adam’s hopes for happiness with her as his bride. Hers and Arthur’s romance is of the flirtatious yet forbidden variety, for they are separated by too wide a class divide to make marriage practicable in those times. And all this goes to Hetty’s otherwise empty head, creating a small pocket of vanity that blossoms under the tender ministrations of the carefree Arthur Donnithorne. It’s the type of beauty that makes other people feel sorry for her and do things for her. It’s not a beauty striking so much as it is innocent and, as Eliot describes Hetty, kittenish. Eliot talks up her appearance as the kind of beauty that only comes along once or twice in a generation. She’s a young, impoverished girl living with her aunt and uncle, the Poysers. This crisis is personified in Hetty Sorel, the love interest. It’s only when Adam himself undergoes a crisis that we get to glimpse the more flawed side of his character. Throughout the novel, Eliot uses him as a pillar of stability during trying times in the village. He is not someone I’d like to disappoint. Adam’s plainspoken attitude, amplified by Eliot’s use of a strong dialect, casts him as someone who views life in very plain, black-and-white terms. A major incident early in the book concerns Adam having to make up work left unfinished by his ailing father, who has succumbed to alcoholism in his later years. He is a paragon of responsibility and moral propinquity.

The titular character is an upright and eligible young carpenter. The plot of Adam Bede really is one of the simplest of all time (though it takes a while to become evident). In hindsight, I can see how her style is less polished than her later works however, at the time, I was captivated by all the hallmarks of Eliot’s writing that make her my favourite Victorian novelist. I didn’t realize this until I read the introduction after finishing the book.

For my third experience I’ve chosen Adam Bede, her first novel. So far I’ve been reading George Eliot’s work in a reverse-chronological order.

Adam george eliot novel