The story of a beautiful country girl's seduction by the local squire and its bitter, tragic sequel is an old and familiar one which George Elio...
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Nov 15, 2010
Skylar
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Adam Bede is a story about love, self-deception, religious feeling, innocence, and experience. It would not be an unfit introduction to Eliot, though Middlemarch is by far her superior novel. I am awed by Eliot's psychological insight into human personality. Her characters are some of the most vivid in all of literary history, and her ability to penetrate to the very heart of human motivation is unrivaled. She presents her story with wit and subtle sarcasm. (Take, for instance, this tongue
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Aug 29, 2011
James
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George Eliot's Adam Bede lives in the charming rustic countryside and adheres to a stoic version of the Puritan work ethic. His world is disrupted by both the classic temptation of Eros in the form of the too beautiful Hetty and the dissenting spiritual views of the Methodist preacher Dinah Morris.
The author controls the narrative and lectures the reader as the other characters, brother Seth, Arthur Donnithorne, the Poysers, and the Rector Irwine are intertwined in the the fates of young H More...
The author controls the narrative and lectures the reader as the other characters, brother Seth, Arthur Donnithorne, the Poysers, and the Rector Irwine are intertwined in the the fates of young H More...
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Sep 14, 2008
Myla
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I loved this book! It was just a mellow fun story to read nothing riviting me to my seat and then all of a sudden I was dying! I have never in my life been completely torn; I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what would happen at the same time I had to stop reading because I was afraid to see what would happen. Never in my life have I seriously considered flipping to the back of the book to see how it ends, and I am not a spoiler of plots. Not to be cliche but I laughed and cried a
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Mar 30, 2008
Mary
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I took my time with this book. First, it was to enjoy Eliot's near-cinematic writing style in the beginning of the novel as she laid out the world and characters of "Adam Bede". Then, I read slowly to slow down the arrival of the inevitable fall from paradise. But Eliot handled it beautifully complete with cliffhangers that saw me, at one dramatic chapter, drop the book, throw my arm over my eyes and gasp for breath. You'll know where when you read it. Please do, Adam Bede's world
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May 07, 2008
Kj
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100% engaging. This is one of those books that you feel more human for having read.
What the plot may lack in scope, the writing makes up for tenfold with tender and true insights into pain, hope, vanity and prosaic life. It's a true, true, true book, that beats with an honest heart. You get to love the narrator in the very fact that the narrator is open about her love for the characters. this book is a treasure, in all its homely ruggedness and sometimes shocking, but inevitable e More...
What the plot may lack in scope, the writing makes up for tenfold with tender and true insights into pain, hope, vanity and prosaic life. It's a true, true, true book, that beats with an honest heart. You get to love the narrator in the very fact that the narrator is open about her love for the characters. this book is a treasure, in all its homely ruggedness and sometimes shocking, but inevitable e More...
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Nov 16, 2011
Charmaine
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I don’t mind reading a book with a slow start like Adam Bede if I am enchanted by the writing, which I was in this book. The first few pages worried me as they had so much peasant dialect I thought it might take me forever to get through it all. But it eased off as the story moved along and popped up only occasionally and then I got better at bumping through it. Recently I received an e-mail with these lines. It reminded me of some of the paragraphs with dialect that I struggled with at the
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Jun 17, 2011
Laura
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For my vacation to Hawaii, I decided to take a break from all the heart pumping suspense of NAL romance to get lost in the pairings of a few good words. George Eliot is my favorite "classics writer," and her description of scene, not unlike a romantic painting, was actually what I had in mind in terms of slowing down and getting lost. Never having read Adam Bede, I picked this one out completely on a whim. Ms. Evans (I'll assume she'd have liked to been called by her actual name, ha
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Feb 06, 2009
Chelsea
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This took me a long time to read, and it's a difficult book to read in 10 or 15 minute snatches. However, I gave it 5 stars because it was worth the time it took. I was really impressed with how Eliot created and presented these characters--she makes you relate with the "bad guys" and really respect the good guys and how they deal with their struggles. She's very wordy, but for the most part they're very wise and worth getting through.
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Apr 10, 2011
What I really appreciate about George Eliot is her strong moral sense. She traces out characters' motivations and flaws, examining why they choose wisely or ill, and exploring the consequences of those choices. She treats her characters with sympathy and understanding (even the ones I don't like as much!), acknowledging the weaknesses of the hero and the virtues of less-honorable characters. Without being (overly) preachy, Adam Bede has a powerful message about the importance of kindness and
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Feb 06, 2012
Amalie
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I'm not a big fan of Eliot and before reading this I've read The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner. I started this several months ago. I started once and was about 150 pages into and put it down. The dialect of the language used in the book is difficult to get used to and it is difficult to know what the character is trying to say.
Then I tried a different technique. I starts to refer sparknotes and read them to make sure I had not missed anything and even then I put it down again af More...
Then I tried a different technique. I starts to refer sparknotes and read them to make sure I had not missed anything and even then I put it down again af More...
Nov 08, 2010
Beccie
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I believe this may be the most beautiful book I have ever read. I felt both uplifted and emotionally drained when I finished. The tragedy and the great beauty of George Eliot's writing! I didn't read this edition, mine was much older, but the introduction of my edition quoted Charles Dickens as saying that reading Adam Bede was an epoch in his life, and Alexandre Dumas called it the masterpiece of the century. I'm happy to agree with them. Most people say that Middlemarch is George Eliot's
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May 27, 2009
Charity
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I savored the words, sentences, scenes, thoughts, and personalities of this book. I was transported. This book will be added to those that I read and re-read and re-read.... George Eliot is sublime. I wanted to memorize whole sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. So much to think on and to internalize. What a treasure this book is!
Adam Bede is a workman in a small parish in north England. There are so many characters this book could have been named after. It is written such tha More...
Adam Bede is a workman in a small parish in north England. There are so many characters this book could have been named after. It is written such tha More...
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Dec 13, 2010
Catherine
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I am a big fan of George Eliot's, so it is no surprise I loved this book. But setting all predispositions aside - this book is a spectacular piece of literature as well as a riveting story. While the plot begins as a classic love triangle involving two men - one wealthy, one poor - and a beautiful girl, the story ultimately grapples with issues such as teen pregnancy, infanticide and female leadership in the church, all of which are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago. What I love most
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Jun 01, 2011
Ruth
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I will tell you up front that this is a difficult read. Not because of the subject matter but because it requires perseverance and determination to see it through until the end. It is long and very often drags. It is your typical classic. I chose to read this book because I had never read anything by George Eliot, and I figured it might be intriguing.
For the first 200 pages or so, I have to admit that I was ready to "bag" it. But by that time, it seemed ridiculous to q More...
For the first 200 pages or so, I have to admit that I was ready to "bag" it. But by that time, it seemed ridiculous to q More...
Apr 02, 2011
Jayme
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This is a love triangle novel. It follows Adam Bede and his love for Hetty Sorrel, who he never really knows or understands, but mostly just lusts after for being beautiful. She meanwhile loves Arthur Donnithorne, the future landlord of the area they live in, who strings her along for a while, making her hope she might marry him despite her being poor, but never actually having any intention to ever do so. It's quite an entertaining and twisted tale, but with many flaws. Over half the book goes
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Oct 24, 2009
Jill
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This started out painfully slow, but it grew on me. I found the religious revival opening very interesting. I also had to wonder if girls really cried at the least provocation back then. It drives me crazy what crybabies they appear to be in literature of this period. I didn't think much of the plot and there was some way too obvious foreshadowing. There were also some really beautiful nuggets of wisdom and quotable quotes. My favorite character was Seth, who I found to be very long-suffer
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Feb 04, 2012
Robert
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Adam Bede by George Eliot - a review by Robert Bovington
Having purchased a Kindle, I downloaded a number of free e-books of "classics" including George Eliot's "Adam Bede". It is a delightful read and is a tale of simple country folk in an early nineteenth century rural community. The main character is carpenter Adam Bede a strong, righteous man who cares for his aging mother. He does have a weakness - he's in love with vain but beautiful Hetty Sorrel. Unfortunately for More...
Having purchased a Kindle, I downloaded a number of free e-books of "classics" including George Eliot's "Adam Bede". It is a delightful read and is a tale of simple country folk in an early nineteenth century rural community. The main character is carpenter Adam Bede a strong, righteous man who cares for his aging mother. He does have a weakness - he's in love with vain but beautiful Hetty Sorrel. Unfortunately for More...
Jan 17, 2012
Stephanie "Jedigal"
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My first Eliot. Wow - she really had a way with a pen... Without being overy "flowery", she can paint a scene in a way that jumps to mind visually. For a voracious reader, I can be pretty bad at visualizing, so this always impresses me.
Compared to Austen, this is very straightforward, as opposed to humorous. Yet its definitely NOT without humor, rather it is the humor we all see in ordinary life. Also the distressing sorrow we see in ordinary life. And the warm suns More...
Compared to Austen, this is very straightforward, as opposed to humorous. Yet its definitely NOT without humor, rather it is the humor we all see in ordinary life. Also the distressing sorrow we see in ordinary life. And the warm suns More...
Oct 08, 2009
Sammie
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Not a fast moving book, and the emphasis is based very much on how the characters feel and less about what happens. Eliot's understanding of human nature, their faults and virtues, is impressive and you feel as if you are living with these characters and sharing in their triumps and sorrow.
It takes an investment of time, it has taken me about twice as long to read this book as it would a modern book of this length. The dialog is at first very difficult to follow, but it is worth sti More...
It takes an investment of time, it has taken me about twice as long to read this book as it would a modern book of this length. The dialog is at first very difficult to follow, but it is worth sti More...
Jan 18, 2010
Felicity
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OK, this was yet another book I had to read for my dissertation. But honestly, it was surprisingly good...if a little unnecessarily long. I've never been able to read George Eliot before. I must have started "Middlemarch with the best of intentions at least three times in the past, but always gave up about one hundred pages in. Having trawled through this 600 page door wedge, I've learnt that Eliot is a writer with whom it is persisting. Plot development is extraordinarily slow, partly
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Nov 24, 2010
LauraJane
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 22, 2012
CaterinaAnna
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a 9/10 five star
The woman we appear to be meant to admire is too good to be true, and the eponymous hero only marginally less so, but this is still a gripping tale. Adam is patient, unselfish and besotted. Thanks to this and his poor understanding of the ways of women, he does eventually crack, sulk and become human, whereas Dinah remains unimpeachably good with her scruples being comprehensible only to those with a strong vocation.
It is the tale of Hetty and Arthur that More...
The woman we appear to be meant to admire is too good to be true, and the eponymous hero only marginally less so, but this is still a gripping tale. Adam is patient, unselfish and besotted. Thanks to this and his poor understanding of the ways of women, he does eventually crack, sulk and become human, whereas Dinah remains unimpeachably good with her scruples being comprehensible only to those with a strong vocation.
It is the tale of Hetty and Arthur that More...
Dec 29, 2009
Becky
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So much I could say, but it's probably been said elsewhere by someone less sleepy. Totally compelling and thought-provoking themes of the relationship between intelligence and moral judgment, gender and power, and human nature. Also wonderfully rendered characters, extreme drama, and general awesomeness.
Stylistically, it kept surprising me with the beauty of its prose, particularly its descriptions of the characters' inner lives. I also really, really enjoyed the northern English dia More...
Stylistically, it kept surprising me with the beauty of its prose, particularly its descriptions of the characters' inner lives. I also really, really enjoyed the northern English dia More...
Jan 30, 2012
Scott
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 15, 2011
Dara
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A fairly decent book. I believe that it was George Eliot’s first novel. The narrative structure is a little strange. She often pursues one part of the action in a scene, stops and starts again from a different point of view. I didn’t particularly like the characters. Dinah is very irritating. As for Adam Bede, I have a difficult time liking or relating to the “virtuous peasant” character that is often the hero in novels of this time period. Despite all this, once I got into the book I foun
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Sep 19, 2011
Jen
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The story was ok, but the narrative structure and the side commentaries of "dear reader" were SOOOOO great. I don't read books over again, but this one, I might be inclined to read again. I have tons of pages of quotes that I loved from it. The author does an especially good discourse about beauty part way through.
On assessing beautiful women:"Oh, that is one of the matters in which old bachelors are wiser than married men, because they have time for more general contemp More...
On assessing beautiful women:"Oh, that is one of the matters in which old bachelors are wiser than married men, because they have time for more general contemp More...
Feb 27, 2011
Rob
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(5/10) At the core of Adam Bede there's a great realist novel with somewhat uncomfortable subtext that could probably be excused by its era. Unfortunately, Eliot's writing style turns that subtext into big sixteen-point font text, and the result is a book that is too busy hammering you over the head with everything to develop its characters or plot beyond two dimensions. In doing so the novel turns from a somewhat dull but convincing depiction of rural life to a morality play where in the end
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Oct 20, 2009
Alison
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A great book about love and forgiveness. I was reading on a cruise ship with dozens of people around and I still cried toward the end (if I'd been alone in my room, I would have been SOBBING). It was so heart-wrenching and I found myself feeling sympathy and pity for characters I previously didn't care for. I love how Adam truly learned the meaning of forgiveness. My only complaint is that I wish Seth's fate had been different. I really liked his character.
"It's no use meet More...
"It's no use meet More...
Jun 09, 2007
Erin
rated it:
not as good as Middlemarch, and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the end pairing, but all in all a good story and an excellent depiction of a village, a society.
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