Abstract
This article gives an account of the immediate publication context of George Eliot’s first novel, Adam Bede, in terms of competing opportunities for leisure, anxieties about the reading of fiction, the publishing industry, and the social and political context of February 1859. It examines the way in which the novel engages with its first readers, specifically through its treatment of the experience of reading fiction, and the ways in which Adam Bede differs from readers’ previous experiences. The article argues that the novel’s impact is determined by its engagement with the past of its setting, and by the ways it which it encourages a historically-nuanced appreciation in its readers, and that these factors are integral to Eliot’s articulating a new form of realist fiction.
Highlights
In a vivid reminder of the material conditions of writers working at the time, this meant that “about a ton and a half of the same type [that] was being used for Adam Bede was locked up” (Haight 1985, 267)
Blackwood was satisfied with Mudie’s decision, not least because, as he wrote to Lewes, he understood the lender’s caution: As I have often explained before, I felt distinctly that by Clerical Scenes a reputation with readers and men of letters was made, but not a public general reputation [...] When the reviews begin to appear and people who have read [Adam Bede] begin to talk about it the movement will take place
No wonder Victoria enjoyed a play that enabled her to believe that “general contentment prevailed” even in the face of financial disaster. Her comments on the play and its subject matter show how the plight of the poor was readily translated into entertainment for the middle classes, whether in the theatre, in the court reports of the daily newspapers, or in fiction. This is the situation that Adam Bede recognised and sought to remedy by directly challenging it, and trying to invoke an empathetic response in its readers which would surpass the easy satisfaction of popular art forms suggested by W.R
Summary
George Eliot’s first novel, Adam Bede, was published on 1 February 1859. It was originally meant to have been published months earlier by Blackwood’s, but had been held up by Edward Bulwer Lytton’s tardiness in correcting the proofs of his 4-volume novel, What Will He Do With It?, written whilst he was Secretary of State for the Colonies. In a vivid reminder of the material conditions of writers working at the time, this meant that “about a ton and a half of the same type [that] was being used for Adam Bede was locked up” (Haight 1985, 267) With this novel, Eliot took Victorian fiction into a new phase of psychological complexity, via a deeply moral, realist aesthetic, and an ambitious reading practice that demanded serious critical attention, but a degree of committed, empathetic investment. Blackwood was satisfied with Mudie’s decision, not least because, as he wrote to Lewes, he understood the lender’s caution: As I have often explained before, I felt distinctly that by Clerical Scenes a reputation with readers and men of letters was made, but not a public general reputation [...] When the reviews begin to appear and people who have read [Adam Bede] begin to talk about it the movement will take place He assured Lewes that he was “sending copies to the Press in all directions” (Haight 1954-78, 3: 9)
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