Adam Bede (Wordsworth Classics)

"stooping to pick the low hanging fruit." It's Hetty at her finest revealing so much of herself. Truly the book focuses on the wrong character. This novel falls under the "Captain Save-a-Ho" genre of Bildungsroman. I am truly enjoying the story as it unfolds. I realize it was titled for the development of a man, and it's something I'm always looking for, a real male character, but as the wife has already pointed out, you can always find a 'real man' when you are looking in a book written by a woman. If only the modern novelists could figure out a way to make a good man get better too. That would be a fascinating read. The flaws are always beyond ineptitude and weakness when evaluated, and nothing quite like the small heroic flaw of being too stern with others failings.

This has always been my favorite of George Eliot's novels, because of the romance and the dialects and the beautiful title character. Now I'm listening to an audiobook version narrated by Wanda McCaddon, who does such an excellent job with the character voices and accents that I'm in love with the whole thing all over again.