British Literature

Publisher and Publication Date: Oxford University Press. My edition is 2008. Originally published in 1859.
Genre: Fiction. Classic British literature. Victorian.
Pages: 592.
Format: Paperback.
Source: Self-purchase.
Audience: Readers of classic literature. Readers of George Eliot stories. Readers of classic British literature.
Rating: Excellent.

#eliotreadalong

Link for more information from Oxford University Press. This is a direct link to the book: Adam Bede.

Link for the book @ Amazon. I don’t understand why the paperback is $51.64! The Kindle edition is .99 cents.

Link for the book @ Barnes and Noble. $13.95.

The I copy read and reviewed is from the final edition, 1861.

George Eliot (1819-1880) is the pen name. Mary Ann Evans is the author’s name. Goodreads‘ author page.

Further links:

Britannica.

An article from BBC. The genius who scandalized society.

Summary:

The year is 1799. England.

Adam and Seth Bede are brothers who live in a farming community near the village of Hayslope. Early in the story their father dies. Adam and Seth continue farming the land. Their mother is Lisbeth Bede.

Adam is in love with a local girl, Hetty Sorrel.

Hetty is a lovely girl. She is focused on the luxuries of the world. Things she like to have but does not. She has romantic notions in her head that are not realistic.

A young woman, Dinah Morris, is a traveling Methodist preacher.

The plot is Hetty and her choices and consequences of those choices which impact Adam, Dinah, and her family.

My Thoughts:

Adam Bede is the first book to read in Nick’s 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-a-Along. In this reading challenge, I read a chapter a day in a George Eliot book. By the end of the year, most of her major works will be read. The next book is Mill on the Floss. I have already began reading this book. This is the second time to read this book. I have two additional books I’d like to read in 2023. One is a biography, George Eliot: A Life by Rosemary Ashton. The second is Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot.

This is the first time to read Adam Bede. I read (several years ago) Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner.

Adam Bede is a soft, tender, and gentle story. Even though there are sad and harsh themes. The story has many moments of great tenderness.

Dinah Morris is my favorite character. However, I dislike her moments of presumption. A couple of strong character traits is she is insightful and wise. She is a deep thinker. This often leads her to ponder people and what may happen to them. It is possible Eliot used Morris as a way to give insight about Hetty’s character or a way to prepare the reader for what may happen. But I can relate to Dinah, and this is why I can state what a drawback it is to have her character traits. I am not always correct in my assumptions/presumptions. I pray about my attitude in casting doubt on a person when I don’t really know them and what I think may happen does not. Only God knows a person’s heart and motives and thoughts.

What I love about Dinah is her gentleness. Her sweet spirit. She is tender. Such beautiful writing surrounds Dinah. It’s as if the radiance of her spirit shines in her countenance. The people certainly respond well to her. They trust her. She is a remarkable book character. I looked forward to all the scenes and dialogues surrounding Dinah.

Adam is both a handsome man and a solid character. I believe he has the best of intentions. I believe he wants to do the right thing-the noble thing.

Seth is a secondary character that loses steam. I don’t see much of him in the story except in the beginning.

Hetty is a headstrong girl. She is beautiful, young, and impressionable. She is a young girl who has not had a mother to raise and prepare her for life’s challenges and disappointments.

Sometimes, Eliot interjects her own thoughts about the story and its characters. Most of the time the story moves chronologically allowing the character’s dialogue and scenes to develop.

I notice Eliot uses strong descriptions to set a scene, and often using the same words. For example, the sun, light, and reflection.

Eliot mentions facial expressions, thoughts, body language, and the countenance of people.

Adam Bede is an enjoyable story. It does have sad moments. It has a solid satisfying conclusion.

Adam Bede is a story of internal conflicts.

Some themes in Adam Bede: male and female romantic relationships, death, honor, conformity, wisdom, pride, gratitude, charity, hope, dreams, temptation, self-control, grief, judgment, innocence, and ambition.

Favorites quotes from the book:

“Dinah had been speaking at least an hour, and the reddening light of the parting day seemed to give a solemn emphasis to her closing words. The stranger, who had been interested in the course of her closing sermon, as if it had been the development of a drama-for there is this sort of fascination in all sincere unpremeditated eloquence, which opens to one the inward drama of the speaker’s emotions-now turned his horse aside and pursued his way, while Dinah said, ‘Let us sing a little, dear friends;’ and as he was still winding down the slope, the voices of the Methodists reached him, rising and falling in that strange blending of exultation and sadness which belongs to the cadence of a hymn.” Page 30.

“Everything was looking at its brightest at this moment, for the sun shone right on the pewter dishes, and from their reflecting surfaces pleasant jets of light were thrown on mellow oak and bright brass;-and on a still pleasanter object than these; for some of the rays fell on Dinah’s finely-molded cheek, and lit up her pale red hair to auburn, as she bent over the heavy household linen which she was mending for her aunt. No scene could have been more peaceful, if Mrs. Poyser, who was ironing a few things that still remained from the Monday’s wash, had not been making a frequent clunking with her iron, and moving to and fro whenever she wanted it to cool; carrying the keen gland of her blue-grey eyes from the kitchen to the dairy, where Hetty was making up the butter, and from the dairy to the back-kitchen, where Nancy was taking the pies out of the oven.” Page 67.

“When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.” Page 49.

Publisher and Publication Date: Oxford University Press. 1854-55. My edition was published 1998.
Genre: Fiction. Classic literature.
Pages: 496.
Format: Paperback.
Source: Self-purchase.
Audience: Readers of classic literature.
Rating: Excellent.

North and South is a read for these challenges: Victorian Reading Challenge, The Classics Club, Chunkster Reading Challenge, and Back to the Classics Challenge 2021.

For further information:
Oxford World’s Classics
The Gaskell Society
American Literature

Elizabeth Gaskell Goodreads author page

Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson Gaskell, 1810-1865

Other books by Elizabeth Gaskell:

Mary Barton 1848
Cranford 1853
Ruth 1853
The Life of Charlotte Bronte 1857
Sylvia’s Lovers 1863
Cousin Phillis and Other Tales 1865
The Grey Tales and Other Tales 1865
Wives and Daughters 1866
Gothic Tales is an assortment of her writings from 1851-1861. The Old Nurse’s Story is one of these stories. The e-book is currently .99 cents at Amazon.

Summary:

Margaret Hale is the heroine of North and South. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. Hale. Margaret has one brother, Frederick, who was in the Navy but brought about a mutiny. He is now living on the European continent and in hiding for fear of court-martial. Her father is a minister in the Church of England. She has a cousin named Edith. Edith is Margaret’s age and early in the book she marries.

Margaret is from the south of England. She is a young woman of middle class.

The Hale family’s lives change when Mr. Hale resigns his position as a minister. The family relocates to a northern town in England. It is an industrial town. The mill owner is Mr. John Thornton.

My Thoughts:

This is the second time to read North and South. I’ve seen the film several times. It is a film produced by the BBC.
When I re-read a book I try and focus on something new. I usually pick a different character than when I read the book the first time. Focusing on someone new helps me learn something new about the book. This time I focused on Margaret’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hale.

There are several reasons why I love this story:

1. Margaret is one of my favorite book heroines. She is steady and reliable. She is observant and cautious. She has a heart of gold. She is not a woman who can be persuaded to become involved with a person or an idea without time to think and weigh the decision. She is beautiful in appearance and character.
2. The romantic element has time to develop and mature.
3. Margaret’s parents come across to me as acting much older than their probable age. Margaret is about 18 or 19 when the story begins. Her parents would be in their 40s or early 50s. But they come across as being much older, 60s to 70s. Mr. and Mrs. Hale are insecure, frail, fragile people. Margaret shows remarkable strength in comparison to her parents. Margaret shows remarkable beauty in her character opposite her cousin Edith. North and South is a story of several comparisons: Margaret and her parents. Margaret and her cousin Edith. The industrial town of the north compared to the towns of the south. The industrial workers compared to the owners. There is also a comparison between Protestant and Catholic.
4. Mr. and Mrs. Hale are not a good match. They are a married couple who are not close. They do not bring out the best in one another. They are not a source of strength for one another. They are not a couple who are transparent and honest. Their strength seems to come from Margaret. She is more like a parent than they are. This is intriguing for a story.
5. Mr. John Thornton is a bit of a brooding, serious type character. It is never voiced, but I believe he is lonely for a wife. He is at an age when he no longer wants to share a home with mother, but have a wife and help-mate. I felt empathy for him in the story.
6. Mrs. Thornton who is John’s mother. She comes across as a sour tart. However, there is something I immediately like, she is a person who states how she feels and this is a breath of fresh air. Whether I like what she always says is another matter. She too is a comparison against Mr. and Mrs. Hale.
7. A good, solid, satisfying closure for the story.

I don’t understand exactly why Mr. Hale wanted to leave the church. This is skimmed over. It is vague. However, through their demeanor and behavior I understand how in this type of situation people feel ashamed, disgraced, embarrassed, and humiliated. His career as a minister placed him in a distinct class station. When he left there would be gossip. Those people would treat the minister and his family differently. Add to this is the situation of their son and what happened to him. Both of these issues are too much and the Hale family would need to relocate.

Themes in the story: family honor, romance, suffering, judgment, conformity, beauty, greed, charity, tolerance, grief, kindness, death and dying, courage, and compassion.