Adam Bede

Adam Bede is the first novel by English author George Eliot, first published in 1859. The novel is set in the fictional community of Hayslope—a rural, pastoral, and close-knit community—in 1799. It revolves around a love "rectangle" among the beautiful but self-absorbed Hetty Sorrel; Captain Arthur Donnithorne, the young squire who seduces her; Adam Bede, her unacknowledged suitor; and Dinah Morris, Hetty's cousin, a fervent, virtuous, and beautiful Methodist lay preacher.