Adam Bede

by George Eliot

CONTENTS

[Book First]
[Chapter I — The Workshop]
[Chapter II — The Preaching]
[Chapter III — After the Preaching]
[Chapter IV — Home and Its Sorrows]
[Chapter V — The Rector]
[Chapter VI — The Hall Farm]
[Chapter VII — The Dairy]
[Chapter VIII — A Vocation]
[Chapter IX — Hetty’s World]
[Chapter X — Dinah Visits Lisbeth]
[Chapter XI — In the Cottage]
[Chapter XII — In the Wood]
[Chapter XIII — Evening in the Wood]
[Chapter XIV — The Return Home]
[Chapter XV — The Two Bed-Chambers]
[Chapter XVI — Links]
[Book Second]
[Chapter XVII — In Which the Story Pauses a Little]
[Chapter XVIII — Church]
[Chapter XIX — Adam on a Working Day]
[Chapter XX — Adam Visits the Hall Farm]
[Chapter XXI — The Night-School and the Schoolmaster]
[Book Third]
[Chapter XXII — Going to the Birthday Feast]
[Chapter XXIII — Dinner-Time]
[Chapter XXIV — The Health-Drinking]
[Chapter XXV — The Games]
[Chapter XXVI — The Dance]
[Book Fourth]
[Chapter XXVII — A Crisis]
[Chapter XXVIII — A Dilemma]
[Chapter XXIX — The Next Morning]
[Chapter XXX — The Delivery of the Letter]
[Chapter XXXI — In Hetty’s Bed-Chamber]
[Chapter XXXII — Mrs. Poyser “Has Her Say Out”]
[Chapter XXXIII — More Links]
[Chapter XXXIV — The Betrothal]
[Chapter XXXV — The Hidden Dread]
[Book Fifth]
[Chapter XXXVI — The Journey of Hope]
[Chapter XXXVII — The Journey in Despair]
[Chapter XXXVIII — The Quest]
[Chapter XXXIX — The Tidings]
[Chapter XL — The Bitter Waters Spread]
[Chapter XLI — The Eve of the Trial]
[Chapter XLII — The Morning of the Trial]
[Chapter XLIII — The Verdict]
[Chapter XLIV — Arthur’s Return]
[Chapter XLV — In the Prison]
[Chapter XLVI — The Hours of Suspense]
[Chapter XLVII — The Last Moment]
[Chapter XLVIII — Another Meeting in the Wood]
[Book Sixth]
[Chapter XLIX — At the Hall Farm]
[Chapter L — In the Cottage]
[Chapter LI — Sunday Morning]
[Chapter LII — Adam and Dinah]
[Chapter LIII — The Harvest Supper]
[Chapter LIV — The Meeting on the Hill]
[Chapter LV — Marriage Bells]
[Epilogue]

Book First

Chapter I
The Workshop

With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader. With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter and builder, in the village of Hayslope, as it appeared on the eighteenth of June, in the year of our Lord 1799.

The afternoon sun was warm on the five workmen there, busy upon doors and window-frames and wainscoting. A scent of pine-wood from a tentlike pile of planks outside the open door mingled itself with the scent of the elder-bushes which were spreading their summer snow close to the open window opposite; the slanting sunbeams shone through the transparent shavings that flew before the steady plane, and lit up the fine grain of the oak panelling which stood propped against the wall. On a heap of those soft shavings a rough, grey shepherd dog had made himself a pleasant bed, and was lying with his nose between his fore-paws, occasionally wrinkling his brows to cast a glance at the tallest of the five workmen, who was carving a shield in the centre of a wooden mantelpiece. It was to this workman that the strong barytone belonged which was heard above the sound of plane and hammer singing—

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth...