Adam Bede

Issued in 1859, this novel is set in the rural Midlands village of Hayslope at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Adam Bede, a carpenter of strict integrity, loves the pretty dairymaid Hetty Sorrel, who is drawn instead to the young squire Arthur Donnithorne. The Methodist preacher Dinah Morris works among the same farms and workshops. Class, desire, and Methodist conscience press on a small community that believes it knows its people. The book follows how a private seduction and its consequences test kinship, work, and the local idea of respectability.

Bound in dark brown cloth blocked with a gilt design. Dark blue slipcase.