Adam Bede*, published in 1859, was George Eliot's first novel. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a highly respected scholar at the time.

Adam Bede, the town carpenter, is in love with the coquettish beauty, Hetty Sorrel.

Unknown to him, he has a rival—the dashing squire, Arthur Donnithorne.

Hetty is attracted by Arthur’s seductive appeal, and laboring under the delusion that Captain Donnithorne may ask for her hand, the lovers begin to meet in secret.

A tale of seduction, betrayal, love and deception, the story is to have tragic consequences that reach far beyond the couple themselves.

Betrayed by their innocence, both Adam and Hetty allow their foolish hearts to trap them in a triangle of seduction, murder, and retribution.

GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880 was an English novelist, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She was born Mary Anne Evans, and adopted her male nom de plume so that her works would be taken seriously at a time when women were supposed to write only of “lighthearted” subjects. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda, most of them set in provincial England and known for their observational wit, psychological insight and dramatic realism.

* “The masterpiece of the century.”

-Alexandre Dumas