Adam Bede Cottage, Wirksworth, UK

Adam Bede by George Eliot

This is, in some ways, a very sad story. The heartbreak and despondency of Hetty, Adam, and now Arthur is almost unbearably sad. I'm hopeful for an inspiring, optimistic ending, but right now, about 3/4's through the book, it's a somber and distressing story. Hetty has been "transported" to Australia for murdering her newborn child, Adam is bereft and grieving, and Arthur, the gentleman landlord and protector of his many tenants, is enlisting in the army and will be gone for years, perhaps forever. The one uplifting note is that Adam has forgiven Arthur and the two have renewed their friendship. It's also encouraging that the author has given the reader 100+ more pages here at the end, which suggests that regeneration and renewal may lie ahead.

Adam Bede by George Eliot

I've been thoroughly enjoying this book. I especially enjoyed Chapter XVII yesterday, in which the author takes a break from the plot to address the reader about philosophical issues regarding the writing of novels. She words here arguments beautifully, and even has the main character, Adam, a humble carpenter, talk about weighty topics like literature and spirituality. It might be my favorite chapter so far. (The Reverend Adolphus Irwine is my favorite character, followed closely by Adam and Dinah Morris, the itinerant Methodist preacher.)

Adam Bede by George Eliot

In this afternoon's reading, the author introduces us to a wonderful character, the Reverend Adolphus Irwine. The following quotes describe him well:

“Let evil words die as soon as they're spoken.” (said by Mr. Irwine)

“And as to people saying a few idle words about us, we must not mind that, any more than the old church-steeple minds the rooks cawing about it.” (also by Mr. Irwine)

“. . . of a sufficiently subtle moral fibre to have an unwearying tenderness for obscure and monotonous suffering.”

“He had that charity which has sometimes been lacking to very illustrious virtue—he was tender to other men's failings, and unwilling to impute evil. He was one of those men, and they are not the commonest, of whom we can know the best only by following them away from the marketplace, the platform, and the pulpit, entering with them into their own homes, hearing the voice with which they speak to the young and aged about their own hearthstone, and witnessing their thoughtful care for the everyday wants of everyday companions, who take all their kindness as a matter of course, and not as a subject for panegyric.”

“But whatever you may think of Mr. Irwine now, if you had met him that June afternoon riding on his grey cob, with his dogs running beside him—portly, upright, manly, with a good-natured smile on his finely turned lips as he talked to his dashing young companion on the bay mare, you must have felt that, however ill he harmonized with sound theories of the clerical office, he somehow harmonized extremely well with that peaceful landscape.”

Adam Bede by George Eliot

These are quotes from today’s reading. The first embodies a fundamental belief of mine, and the second seems to me a wise statement about a helpful way to view life. I hope I can become "at once penetrating and credulous". (The italics in the quote are mine.)

“I hate to be talking where it's no use: I like to keep my breath for doing i'stead o' talking."

“Adam was not a man to be gratuitously superstitious, but he had the blood of the peasant in him as well as of the artisan, and a peasant can no more help believing in a traditional superstition than a horse can help trembling when he sees a camel. Besides, he had that mental combination which is at once humble in the region of mystery and keen in the region of knowledge: it was the depth of his reverence quite as much as his hard common sense which gave him his disinclination to doctrinal religion, and he often checked Seth's argumentative spiritualism by saying, "Eh, it's a big mystery; thee know'st but little about it." And so it happened that Adam was at once penetrating and credulous.”

Adam Bede by George Eliot

I’ve been reading Adam Bede for the last few days, and also listening to a recorded reading of it by an excellent professional actor. In a way, this is a first for me. I have occasionally listened to recorded books, but always in the car, never sitting in a chair and following the story as I listen. It’s been a wonderful experience so far, making me wonder why I didn’t do this years ago. Listening to the actor read the story allows me to enter into it more deeply – to visualize the scenes more clearly and, especially, to hear the various dialects and modes of speech of the characters. It’s a new and in some ways more profound way for me to read – one which I may try, to some degree, with my scholars this coming year.