Adam Bede is a
novel written by George Eliot. It's her first full-length novel and tremendously received by contemporary reviewers.
Hetty Sorrel is the niece of Martin Poyser, a farmer. Adam Bede, a carpenter in the Midland village of Hayslope, is in
love with Hetty but she dreams of becoming the wife of the
squire, Arthur Donnithorne. The squire is attracted to Hetty. Adam watches flirtation going on between Arthur and Hetty.
One day Arthur disappears. Broken hearted, Hetty agrees to marry Adam but she
finds herself pregnant and runs away from home, out of desperation and hoping to find Arthur. Meanwhile, Adam finds emotional support from Dinah Morris, a young Methodist preacher, with whom Adam's brother Seth is hopelessly in love.
Hetty never found Arthur Donnithorne; she is also arrested, charged and convicted with the murder of her child. Dinah tries to comfort Hetty in her harshest moments and ordeal. In the end, Hetty's sentence is reprieved and commuted to transportation. Adam and Dinah later married.