Adam Bede

"Carpenter Adam Bede is in love with the beautiful Hetty Sorrel, but unbeknownst to him, he has a rival in the local squire's son Arthur Donnithorne. Hetty is soon attracted by Arthur's seductive charm and they begin to meet in secret. The relationship is to have tragic consequences that reach far beyond the couple themselves, touching not just Adam Bede but many others, not least the pious Methodist preacher Dinah Morris. A tale of seduction, betrayal, love and deception, the plot of Adam Bede has the quality of an English folk song. Within the setting of Hayslope, a small rural community, Eliot brilliantly creates a sense of earthy reality, making the landscape itself as vital a presence in the novel as that of her other characters." "Margaret Reynolds's introduction sets out the social background to Adam Bede, discusses the genesis of the novel, explores changing attitudes towards it and reassesses critical perceptions of the major characters. This edition also contains further reading and explanatory notes."--BOOK JACKET.