Adam Bede Summary
George Eliot

Chapter I The Workshop With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past.  This is what I undertake to do for... Read more

Biography EssayThe most learned and respected novelist of the late Victorian period, George Eliot suffered a decline in reputation after her death and into the early twentieth century because the biog... Read more

The most learned and respected novelist of the later Victorian period, George Eliot suffered a decline in reputation after her death and into the early twentieth century because the biography stitched... Read more

George Eliot wrote nearly all of her nonfiction prose during two widely separated periods in her life. As Marian Evans, in her mid thirties, she produced more than sixty critical essays that appeared ... Read more

Originally published in 1859, this early favorable review of Adam Bede recommends the novel for its realism and power. Adam Bede is a novel of the highest class. Full of quiet power, without exagge... Read more

In the following essay, Johnstone uses Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic notion of “self-psychology” to discuss the failure of Adam Bede, and demonstrates Eliot's failure to rec... Read more

In the following essay, Gunn examines Eliot's discussion of Dutch genre painting and its relationship to realism in Adam Bede. When George Eliot compared her fiction to the work of Dutch gen... Read more

In the following essay, Levine analyzes the importance of the gaze as it questions the relationship between looking and loving in Adam Bede.. In the past two decades, critics from Laura Mulvey to M... Read more

Originally published in 1859, the following review praises Adam Bede for demonstrating that despite social differences, people are more similar than not, and recommends the author for imbuing her char... Read more

In the following essay, Wiesenfarth looks at the roles Hebrew, Greek, and Christian mythology play in Eliot's presentation of realism in Adam Bede. George Eliot told John Blackwood that Adam... Read more

In the following essay, Harris examines Arthur's class consciousness and the psychology of his seduction of Hetty as they are revealed through Eliot's use of Wordsworthian realism. Be... Read more

In the following essay, Harris examines the character of Hetty Sorrel and her place in the larger narrative of Adam Bede, and discusses the realism of her despair and flight. Adam Bede has usually ... Read more