- Mass Market Paperback: 608 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; 1st Reprinted edition edition (Jan 1 1980)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140431217
- ISBN-13: 978-0140431216
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #784,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“Adam Bede has taken its place among the actual experiences and endurances of my life.” —Charles Dickens
From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
Adam Bede is a hardy young carpenter who cares for his aging mother. His one weakness is the woman he loves blindly: the trifling town beauty, Hetty Sorrel, whose only delights are her baubles - and the delusion that the careless Captain Donnithorne may ask for her hand. Betrayed by their innocence, both Adam and Hetty allow their foolish hearts to trap them in a triangle of seduction, murder, and retribution.
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First Sentence
WITH a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
WITH a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Trouble in the countryside,
By
This review is from: Penguin Classics Adam Bede (Mass Market Paperback)
After having read "The Mill on the Floss" some years ago and being thoroughly bored by it, I thought I'd never try a George Eliot novel again. But I'm glad I did. "Adam Bede" is a rich and complicated book; not without its imperfections, yet which stands above many of the nineteenth century novels I've read.I thought that here was an author with an enquiring mind regarding human nature in all its imperfections, not afraid to wander outside of the wealthier classes for her setting, and certainly interested in examining the motivations and thought processes of her characters. Throughout "Adam Bede", the better-drawn and more interesting characters are the women. The men, especially Adam Bede himself, are almost all two-dimensional figures around which the females drive the action. I thought that perhaps Eliot was trying to expose the real role of women in society - bereft of equal rights, they had to exercise their influence through men. This must have been deeply frustrating - witness Mrs Poyser's tirade against Squire Donnithorne while her husband stands by impotently. At its worst, women had to secure their future by marriage - thus Hetty Sorrel begins by being an unsympathetic, materialistic figure, but when seen in context, her options in life are strictly circumscribed. Can the reader really blame her for trying to make an "advantageous match"? There were themes in the novel which I thought might have been developed more than they were - the challenge to the Church of England from Methodism features early in the novel, only to fade away as a real issue. Eliot alludes to the connection between class structure and the role of the Church of England, but seems to lose interest after making her point. Only rarely does she hit hard about the living conditions of the rural working class. Apart from Mrs Poyser's protest, we're rarely far away from the myth of "Merrie England". But my main gripe is that Eliot pulls her punches towards the end of the novel. I felt that an author like Hardy would have had more courage, and would not have been afraid to shock his audience. Eliot backs down and chooses the safe old cliche of marriage being the solution to everything. All that is not to detract from its overall worth as a novel. I was pleasantly surprised, and apart from the last 50 or so pages, interested throughout. G Rodgers
3.0 out of 5 stars
for George Eliot fans only,
By A Customer
This review is from: Penguin Classics Adam Bede (Mass Market Paperback)
Compared to Middlemarch and Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede is a dull read. Sure it has all the richness of George Eliot novels, but the story seems a bit contrived and the ending isn't very satisfactory.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure genius,
By A Customer
This review is from: Adam Bede (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
What can I say about this wondeful story? The genius George Eliot lulls us into a false sense of security - the first half of the book is so idyllic and lovely that we are just not prepared for the ensuing tragedy. Marvellous.
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