Summary The scene shifts to Adam’s cottage. Lisbeth has laid out the corpse and done everything possible to make the bedchamber where it lies clean and respectable. Her grief for her husband is so intense that it approaches despair, and when Seth tries to comfort her as she sits in […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 10Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapters 6-9
Summary For the most part, Chapter 6 describes daily life at the Hall Farm. The house itself is an old manor converted into a farmhouse in which Mr. and Mrs. Poyser, their three children, Mr. Poyser’s niece Hetty Sorrel, and a couple of domestic servants live. It is the best […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapters 6-9Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 5
Summary The scene shifts to Broxton Parsonage, home of the Reverend Mr. Irwine, the local Church of England clergyman. The rector is playing chess with his mother when Joshua Rann, the Hayslope parish clerk, arrives. He tells Mr. Irwine that the Methodists — especially Dinah — are causing religious dissension […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 5Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 4
Summary Adam reaches the cottage where he lives with his brother and their elderly parents. His mother tells him that his father, who is apparently an irresponsible alcoholic, has wandered off to a tavern in the next town, Treddleston, instead of making a coffin which he had contracted to finish […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 4Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 3
Summary Seth sees Dinah home after the meeting; she is staying with her uncle and aunt, the Poysers, at the Hall Farm. He asks her to marry him, feeling her to be a beautiful soul, full of goodness. Dinah gently refuses, explaining that she wants to live without a family. […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 3Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 2
Summary The traveler who had noticed Adam Bede stops at the village inn and speaks with the innkeeper, Mr. Casson, learning that Dinah is to preach. Curious, he goes to the green to observe. The townspeople of Hayslope — only two of whom are Methodists — gather in knots near […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 1
Summary The author promises to recreate a vision of the past for the reader — a picture of Jonathan Burge’s carpentry workshop as it existed in the town of Hayslope in Loamshire, England, in 1799. After mentioning the shop itself, she focuses on a tall, sturdy young workman, Adam Bede. […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 1Book Summary
Seth goes to the prayer meeting and afterwards proposes to Dinah, who refuses him. Meanwhile, Adam has gone home and found out from his mother, Lisbeth, that his father, Thias, has gone off drinking instead of finishing a coffin he had contracted for. Working all night, Adam finishes the coffin, […]
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