Adam Bede

Adam Bede. It worried me. The main character is a man, and I often have trouble feeling a connection with male main characters. It was first published in 1859, and I sometimes struggle with older titles. The dialogue is written in dialect, and that can be difficult to read. But it is the first book scheduled for Chapter-a-Day this year, and it's written by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), and both of those were great reasons to push through my worries.

So, now that I did and have, what do I think?

It was initially a little bit of a struggle to connect with the character of Adam Bede. But male character Adam is rendered by a female author, and so comes across in a form that I can emotionally connect to.

I did struggle with it in the same ways as I often do with older titles: The plot and dialogue and descriptions of settings and characters often seems overly drawn out; I want to say, Get on with it. And that happened, off and on, throughout Adam Bede. But it wasn't so annoying that I wanted to give up.

The dialogue-written-in-dialect was really tricky for me. Sometimes I had to stop and read the dialogue aloud to figure out what the people were saying. But there was also a sense of accomplishment in doing so, almost like figuring out a clue in a crossword.

Adam Bede is a marvelous book, with rich characters, both heroes and villains, heroes who blunder and act like villains, and villains who rise and act like heroes. It has a story that we can all connect to: falling for someone based on surface qualities and the results of doing that. It has a deep and thoughtful narrator who shares this story with us as if the narrator were in the room with us, relating the tale in person, with a sense of reflection about the happenings of the story that only time and age can give.

‰ЫПImagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity.‰Ыќ

‰ЫПLong dark lashes, now‰ЫУwhat can be more exquisite? I find it impossible not to expect some depth of soul behind a deep grey eye with a long dark eyelash, in spite of an experience which has shown me that they may go along with deceit, peculation, and stupidity. But if, in the reaction of disgust, I have betaken myself to a fishy eye, there has been a surprising similarity of result. One begins to suspect at length that there is no direct correlation between eyelashes and morals; or else, that the eyelashes express the disposition of the fair one‰ЫЄs grandmother, which is on the whole less important to us.‰Ыќ

The most engaging book I‰ЫЄve read in a while. It seems that it shouldn‰ЫЄt be that way, with lengthy passages of descriptions and contemplations that I shouldn‰ЫЄt enjoy, but yet still it is ridiculously good.

I love this book and these characters so much. The book teaches a very clear moral lesson of compassion. Eliot writes about her characters, their mistakes and their flaws with so much care. Love it.