Adam Bede
By GEORGE ELIOT Condensation by ELLERY SEDGWICK THAT last year of the eighteenth century Hayslope was a pleasant neighborhood to live in. It was far enough away from the noise of "Boney's" battles to sleep in peace. Men chatted of crops and rents, and listened to the gossip of women folk regarding Dinah Morris of Snowfield, Mrs. Poyser's own niece, who had turned "Methody" preacher and would stand right before men on the village green, talking to them of the comfort they could find in their friend, Jesus Christ.
And, worse still, Dinah was so attractive and so gravely loving that the men, and women, too, gladly listened to her. Big Adam Bede, the carpenter, would have liked to see more of her, had he eyes for any one except old Poyser's niece, Hetty Sorrel. As for Hetty, she had no thought for Adam; Captain Arthur Donnithorne, heir of the estate, had whispered too many things in her pretty ear.