George Eliot, Adam Bede. William Blackwood and Sons, 1859. Link.
Source: audiobook borrowed from San Diego Public Library

This was the first Eliot I read, in a Victorian Lit survey in college with Paul Saint-Amour. I loved it then, but 25 years later find it to be the least of Eliot's comedies. The shock of Hetty Sorrel's fate is still palpable and gutting, making the final book excruciating in its turn away from her to Adam and Dinah's happiness.

I listened to Wanda McCaddon's performance, as I have for most of the novels. She isn't quite as thrilling as Juliet Stevenson, but does the various rural accents with zest and has a lovely guttural way with male dialogue in particular.

However, the auditory reading did leave me with this perfect credo statement for those of us who found love late after suffering pain and loss of time with the first.