Several weeks later, Adam is heading home after finishing work on the Donnithorne estate and he passes Donnithorne and Hetty in a close embrace. This incites pride in Adam’s mother as well as jealousy, for she fears her son his moving further out of her reach. Donnithorne celebrates his twenty-first birthday with a great feast and invites Adam to sit at his table. When Seth proposes marriage to her, she declines, stating that she has devoted her life to preaching the gospel. Dinah is Hetty’s cousin, but the two could not be more different, not unlike Seth and his brother. Adam’s brother, Seth, is in love with a young Methodist preacher named Dinah Morris. She becomes even more dependent on her favorite son after her husband drowns while on his way home from the village inn. Hetty takes no notice of Adam, as she is interested only in the squire, Captain Arthur Donnithorne, whom she met one day at her aunt’s dairy, and who happens to be Adam’s best friend.Įveryone in Hayslope is opposed to the idea of a union between Adam and Hetty, especially his mother Lisbeth, who feels threatened by any girl who might steal her son away from her. Poyser, whose husband, Martin, runs Hall Farm. However, Adam only has eyes for the beautiful Hetty Sorel. He would be proud to welcome Adam into his family as his son-in-law as well as his business partner. Adam is such a good worker that his employer, Jonathan Burge, has been encouraging him to get together with his daughter, Mary Burge. He is described as being tall and muscular and is respected by everyone for his honesty and solid work ethic. In the village lives a young carpenter by the name of Adam Bede. The novel is set in the village of Hayslope towards the end of the eighteenth century. The novel has remained in print ever since its original publication and is regularly used in university studies of nineteenth-century English literature. George Eliot is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, a respected and well-published scholar of the time who, nevertheless, chose to publish her novels under the pseudonym.

George Eliot’s first novel, Adam Bede, was first published in 1859.

Adam george eliot novel