Adam Bede

Part of my job description requires me to make CD rom-type resources for our teachers. It is a tedious process of cutting and pasting text, inserting images, building links, and checking links. To keep my brain from turning into mush I like to listen to recorded books on Librivox.com. Currently I am listening to Adam Bede by George Eliot.

Image from the British Museum

I adore Eliot. I have read Silas Marner and Middlemarch and found both to be so complex and multi-layered. She creates amazing characters and is able to weave in themes of class and status. She also manages to imbue her stories with romance without sending them over the top - a rare trait in a Victorian author. I especially enjoy the way she uses knitting. Women in her books are always knitting. Her women are practical - needles clicking, contemplating their households and trying to determine how best to hold that household together. Complicated women knit while "less" complicated women are much more idle. Knitting seems to equate to thoughtfulness. This is very different from Madam Defarge's conniving knitting or Jane Austen's embroidering girls. These are salt of the earth women and they are rarely without their worsted and pins. Her books aren't easy - they are long and she often writes dialogue in dialect. They are worth the effort, though, and they certainly cut the tedium of making CDs.