George Eliot

Adam Bede George Eliot

After a decade or so as a professional writer George Eliot ventured into her first full length novel with Adam Bede.

Adam, a local carpenter, falls in love with Hetty Sorrel. She is in love with Arthur Donnithorne, grandson to the local squire. There is a fight between the two men and Arthur agrees to give up Hetty and leaves to return to his militia. After he leaves, Hetty Sorrel consents to marry Adam but shortly before their marriage, discovers that she is pregnant. Arthur cannot be found and because of the shame of her predicament she delivers her baby with the assistance of a friendly woman she encounters. She subsequently abandons the infant in a field. Tragically the infant dies of exposure. Hetty is caught and tried for child murder. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang. Fortunately, the intervention of others spares her from execution. Meanwhile Adam has met and fallen in love with Dinah Morris and for the two of them the story ends happily.




The book was first published in 1859.