Born in Warwickshire and the recipient of a much broader education than was usual for a woman in the first half of the 19th century, Mary Anne (or Marian) Evans began her literary career by making use of her knowledge of European languages and working as a translator. Her first fiction, Scenes of Clerical Life, appeared under George Eliot, the male pseudonym she had adopted in 1857. Dickens was one of the few people perceptive enough to recognize that the stories were the work of a woman, writing that, if the book were not the work of a woman, 'then should I begin to believe that I am a woman myself'. Adam Bede followed two years later. The eponymous central character is a carpenter in a small village in the Midlands who is in love with the vain and flirtatious Hetty Sorrel, the niece of a local farmer. Hetty, dreaming of social advancement, responds to the interest shown in her by the local squire, Arthur Donnithorne, as Adam looks on with ill-concealed concern. Adam is proved right in his anxieties about Hetty, who is first seduced and then abandoned by Donnithorne. Hetty now agrees to marry Adam but she is not only still distressed by her earlier lover's faithlessness, she is also pregnant and, before the wedding can take place, she disappears. Hetty's flighty flirtatiousness, eventually punished by her arrest and trial for the supposed murder of her child, is contrasted with the steady moral virtue of the Methodist preacher, Dinah Morris, who provides comfort in their troubles for both Adam and Hetty. George Eliot's first full-length novel, inspired by an account her aunt gave her of spending the night with a young woman condemned to die for infanticide, is a major work of Victorian realism, an example of her belief that the lives of the poor and the obscure deserved the attention of novelists as much as those of the rich and powerful.

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Book Reports at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Book Reports and other relevant topics.