Adam Bede

Adam is a young carpenter, who loves Hetty Sorrell, a pretty dairymaid, but finally marries Dinah Morris, a factory girl who becomes a Methodist preacher. Lisbeth Bede and Seth Bede are Adam's mother and brother. Hetty Sorrell, who is vain and frivolous, is ruined by Arthur Donnithorne, a weak, good-natured young man, whose chief remorse lies in his chagrin at being found out. Another principal character is Mrs. Poyser, a hard-working woman living with her husband on one of Squire Donnithorne's farms. She makes many shrewd observations that have become proverbial. 'Adam Bede' is likely to remain George Eliot's most popular work. It is a story of which any English author, however great his name, could not fail to have been proud. Everything about it is at once simple and great, and the plot is unfolded with singular simplicity, purity and power.