Adam Bede

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Set in 1799 in the rural English village of Hayslope, George Eliot's Adam Bede follows an honorable carpenter, Adam, who is hopelessly in love with the vain, self-absorbed milkmaid , Hetty Sorrel. Hetty, however, only has eyes for the wealthy local squire, Captain Arthur Donnithorne, who seduces her and leaves her pregnant and abandoned.Desperate to escape her shame, Hetty flees town but abandons her newborn baby in the woods, which leads to her arrest and conviction for child murder. During her trial and imprisonment, Hetty's deeply compassionate cousin, Dinah Morris (a devout Methodist preacher), helps the young woman repent and find peace before her sentence. Captain Donnithorne intervenes at the last moment to have Hetty's death sentence commuted to transportation, where she ultimately dies.Through the tragedy, Adam's uncompromising moral worldview is softened, and he gradually discovers that he has developed a deep, genuine love for Dinah. The novel concludes with Adam and Dinah getting married and starting a family. Show more