SOURCE: “Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, April 1859,” in The Critical Response to George Eliot, edited by Karen L. Pangallo, Greenwood Press, 1994, pp. 37-38.

The following excerpt of a review originally published in 1859 discusses Eliot's portrayal of religion and praises her for her rendering of common working class people.

The great merit of Adam Bede consists in the singular grace and skill with which the characteristic detail of country life are rendered. To say of such a book that it does not depend for its main attraction on the development of a carefully-constructed plot, is little more than saying that it is a novel of character rather than action. With one great exception, the masters of fiction of our own day—and among these Mr. Eliot has incontestably made good his place—either fail in the constructive power, or will not condescend to write a story. They throw all their force...