'Our deeds carry their terrible consequences...consequences that are hardly ever
confined to ourselves.' Pretty Hetty Sorrel is loved by the village carpenter A
dam Bede, but her head is turned by the attentions of the fickle young squire, A
rthur Donnithorne. His dalliance with the dairymaid has unforeseen consequences
that affect the lives of many in their small rural community. First published in
1859, Adam Bede carried its readers back sixty years to the lush countryside of
Eliot's native Warwickshire, and a time of impending change for England and the
wider world.
Eliot's powerful portrayal of the interaction of ordinary peopl
e brought a new social realism to the novel, in which humour and tragedy co-exis
t, and fellow-feeling is the mainstay of human relationships. Faith, in the figu
re of Methodist preacher Dinah Morris, offers redemption to all who are willing
to embrace it. This new edition is based on the definitive Clarendon edition and
Eliot's corrected text of 1861.
