There are numerous biographies of Eliot, and Adam Bede is easy enough to obtain, but certain details about the author and her first novel are worth commenting upon.Īnatoly Lunacharsky, the Commissar of Education following the Russian Revolution and a literary critic of note, once recommended, “be born a genius by all means-but the most important thing is to be born at the right time,” adding Goethe’s observation, “Had I been born 20 years earlier or later, I would have been quite a different person.”Įliot’s life, 1819-1880, coincides almost exactly with Marx’s (1818-1883). He held a Grand fête du Réalisme at his studio in Paris in October, writing a friend two months later that “Realism is very much under attack at the moment…we must marshal new forces and do everything we can.”īefore 2009 comes to an end, the publication of George Eliot’s novel Adam Bede early in 1859 also deserves to be noted. Gustave Courbet was the acknowledged, if embattled, leader of the Realist current in painting. Its preface contains the famous summation of the materialist conception of history (which, decades later, the Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky would memorize and be able to recite by heart) that begins, “In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production.…” ( 1)Ī Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens appeared in 1859, as did Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov. Alexandre Dumas called this novel 'the masterpiece of the century.' inventory #33051 Previous Owner s name Penned in Front, Otherwise Very Good in Wrappers.Marx, who immediately recognized the significance of Darwin’s work, published his own A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy that same year.

With emotional sincerity and intellectual integrity, George Eliot probes deeply into the psychology of commonplace people caught in the act of uncommon heroics. Betrayed by their innocence, vanity, and imprudence, their foolish hearts lead them to a tragic triangle of seduction, murder, and retribution.

Adam Bede, a simple carpenter, loves too blindly Hetty Sorrel, a coquettish beauty, loves too recklessly and Arthur Donnithorne, a dashing squire, loves too carelessly. FROM THE PUBLISHER - The English Midlands at the turn of the eighteenth century is the setting for George Eliot's moving novel of three unworldly people trapped by unwise love. Previous Owner s name Penned in Front, Otherwise Very Good in Wrappers.

1859 novel by george eliot