BROADCASTS.com

Adam Bede (version 2)

by George ELIOT (1819 - 1880)

Chapter 37,The Journey in Despair

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans – an ironic ‘deception’ given that Adam Bede, her first novel, is written unashamedly from a feminist standpoint. The story centres on a pastoral love triangle. Two young men, carpenter Adam Bede and squire Captain Arthur Donnithorne, are both in love with the mercurial Hetty Sorrel. There’s a further love interest between Adam and beautiful lay preacher Dinah Morris. The setting is a country village in the north of England in the last years of the eighteenth century. The author paints a wonderful landscape of contemporary life as it really was, and excels in the portraits of her characters. Each is flawed, each has their own passions, each is unique, and through this great novel, Eliot put her stamp on literature and on the way we view the vagaries of character, helping us to see people as they really are. This is one of the greatest novels in the English language. First published in 1859, Adam Bede has never been out of print since, which speaks volumes about its timeless quality. - Summary by Tom Denholm

---

Listen next episodes of Adam Bede (version 2):
Book 6, Chapter 49, At the Hall Farm , Chapter 38, The Quest , Chapter 39,The Tidings , Chapter 40, The Bitter Waters Spread , Chapter 41, The Eve of the Trial , Chapter 42, The Morning of the Trial , Chapter 43, The Verdict , Chapter 44, Arthur's Return , Chapter 45, In the Prison , Chapter 46, The Hours of Suspense , Chapter 47, The Last Moment , Chapter 48, Another Meeting in the Wood , Chapter 50, In the Cottage , Chapter 51, Sunday Morning , Chapter 52, Adam and Dinah , Chapter 53, The Harvest Supper , Chapter 54, The Meeting on the Hill , Chapter 55, Marriage Bells , Epilogue