Reading 1001 discussion

3.5 stars rounded up.

Adam Bede was a bit too slow for my taste. George Eliot writes characters who are completely unique, quite odd, and often awkward. Adam Bede is no exception. That is what I like best about her books. Unfortunately though I never fully connected to Mr Bede and I felt like I was always waiting for the part of the story that would make me care. Eliot's prose is lovely and her story-telling is quiet and subtle, which I like. But the combination of the protagonist for whom I had little empathy and a slowly-paced story left me wanting much more.

Rating: 4 stars


A love triangle (rectangle?) set in the late 18th century. This was the full package - love, tragedy, betrayal, suspense, etc. The writing was beautiful and descriptive. The local dialect and dense prose did take a bit of effort, though. There were some similarities to Tess of the D'Urbervilles, although I prefer Tess more. My only complaints are that the story is a bit slow-going at first and the book is unnecessarily lengthy. The story could benefit from some editing.

Adam Bede, was the first novel by Mary Ann Evans, and was published in 1859.I read this as part of 1001 Books and TBR takedown. It was an enjoyable story of the 19th century. According to wikipedia, this story is founded on the life of the author's aunt who was a female preacher. I enjoyed the calm, peacefulness of this story of human life. I enjoyed the characterization of Adam, Arthur, Hettie and Diane. I thought the characters were real. It covers such items as infanticide, women preachers. It has a rural setting. Everything ends well and that makes the novel unbelievable in the scheme of things but it also is satisfying to have a good ending.

I loved that there are a variety of female characters in this novel, including the woman who is a preacher, even though that character is the sort of sanctimonious person I avoid in real life. Adam Bede also was well written as a character, and reminded me of people I know. Hettie was a bit more flat for me. She had to kill, or at least abandon her baby in order to get to the rest of the plot, but for me this action and her not turning to Adam or someone else in her circle for help seemed hard to believe, given what I knew of her up to that point. Eliot wrote some nice passages in this book, and it was an easy novel to read, but not one of my favorites from its era. So far the only other book I have read by Eliot is Silas Marner, and I was about 11 when I read that one, but I suspect I'd still like that one more. I gave Adam Bede 4 stars on Goodreads.