Adam Bede (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Mary Ann Evans
- First Published: 1859
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1799-1801 and 1807
- Setting: The fictional towns of Loamshire and Stonyshire, near the Staffordshire-Derbyshire border in rural England
- Principal Characters: Adam Bede, Hetty Sorrel, Arthur Donnithorne, Dinah Morris, The Reverend Adolphus Irwine, Bartle Massey, Seth Bede, Rachel
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Love or romance, Murder or homicide, Nineteenth century, Social issues, Rural or country life, Obsession, Pregnancy, Ministry or ministers, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Illegitimacy, Ethics, Carpentry or carpenters, Preaching, Fate or fatalism, Romanticism
- Locales: England
Form and Content
Elaborated from a prison confession recounted by George Eliot’s aunt, Adam Bede began as a fourth story for Scenes of Clerical Life, but it grew to a densely realized novel of rural, semifeudal English life. For an audience conditioned to accept class subjugation and a double standard in sexual conduct, Eliot dramatized the sufferings of a dependent class when the economically powerful behave irresponsibly, emphasizing particularly the traumatic isolation of a young farm woman seduced by a wealthy “gentleman.”
Chapter 17, often cited...
[The entire page is 2408 words long]
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See Also:
George Eliot (Cyclopedia of World Authors)George Eliot (Short Fiction)George Eliot (Dictionary of World Biography)George Eliot (Long Fiction)
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