Adam Bede

Eliot published Adam Bede in 1859 after being inspired by a story from her aunt, Elizabeth Evans. A Methodist preacher, Elizabeth recounted the story of a confession by a girl in prison about murdering a small child. The book follows an elaborate love affair between four main characters: Hetty, Arthur, Adam Bede and Dinah. Adam is in love with Hetty while she is in love with Arthur. After Adam discovers that Hetty and Arthur are involved in an intimate relationship, he confronts Arthur, convinces him to leave and proposes marriage to Hetty. Hetty accepts, but before the wedding, realizes she is pregnant. Dreading the shame and ostracism she would face in her small town, she leaves in search for Arthur, her child's father. Unable to find him, she delivers the baby in the forest and abandons it. When Hetty is tried and convicted of child murder, Dinah, the Methodist preacher based on Eliot's aunt Elizabeth, offers Hetty religious solace before she is transported away for her crime. Although the novel is more a story about the female characters, specifically Hetty and her struggle to live in 19th-century English society, Eliot titled the novel Adam Bede. Some critics believe the titling may have been to increase sales, while others believe the author wished readers to be more aware of the lessons learned by Adam than those learned by the other characters.