possible. Dinah is a very striking
and original character, always perfectly supported, and never obtrusive in
her piety. Very early in the book I took it into my head that it would be
'borne in upon her' to fall in love with Adam. Arthur is the least
satisfactory character, but he is true too. The picture of his happy,
complacent feelings before the bombshell bursts upon him is very good.'

"_Adam Bede_ was published in the last week of January, 1859. The author
was desirous on this occasion to test her strength by appealing directly to
the public; and the editor, though quite prepared to accept _Adam Bede_ for
the magazine, willingly gratified her. Sending George Eliot an early copy,
before _Adam Bede_ had reached the public, he says, 'Whatever the
subscription may be, I am confident of success--great success. The book is
so novel and so true, that the whole story remains in my mind like a
succession of incidents in the lives of people I know. _Adam Bede_ can
certainly never come under the class of popular agreeable stories; but
those who love power, real humor, and true natural description, will stand
by the sturdy carpenter and the living groups you have painted in and about
Hayslope.'

"_Adam Bede_ did not immediately command that signal success which, looking
back to it now, we might have expected for it. As the editor had warned the
author, the Scenes had secured for her a reputation with the higher order
of readers and with men of letters, but had not established her popularity
with the public in general. The reviewers, too, were somewhat divided. Many
of them recognized the merits of the work, but more committed the blunder
of endeavoring to fix the position of the book by contrasting the author
with the popular novelists of the time, and by endeavoring to determine
from which of them she had drawn her inspiration. In 1859 a review of _Adam
Bede_ from the pen of one of the oldest and ablest of our contributors was
published in this magazine, and on its appearance George Eliot wrote the
editor, 'I should like you to convey my gratitude to your reviewer. I see
well he is a man whose experience and study enabled him to relish parts of
my book which I should despair of seeing recognized by critics in London
back drawing-rooms. He has gratified me keenly by laying his fingers on
passages which I wrote either from strong feeling or from intimate
knowledge, but which I had prepared myself to find passed over by
review