We are guided throughout by a firm authorial voice, commenting on events and reminding us that her aim is the faithful depiction of ordinary people getting on with their ordinary lives, into which unexpected events break. It evokes a complete world - its values, personalities, small talk, and attitudes - adding resonance to the events in the narrative foreground. She does not focus on a few “star parts”, with a near-invisible supporting cast of servants and rustics (compared with, say, some of the popular Brontë or Jane Austen works).Īt times, we might want her to skip the background detail and hurry past the secondary characters, but this is where the heart of the book lies. George Eliot’s characters are firmly footed in their home communities. Adam Bede can be summarised as “the downfall of Hetty the dairymaid and what happened to Adam, her would-be lover” - but the book is a far richer experience than a “who-did-what-to-whom” plot summary.
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