Adam Bede, the novel that Alexandre Dumas called "the masterpiece of the century", is set in the English Midlands at the turn of the eighteenth century. It is the moving story of three people troubled by unwise love. Adam Bede, a young man possessing dignity and character, loves too blindly; Hetty Sorrel, pretty, vain, and self-centered, loves too recklessly; and Arthur Donnithorne, a dashing young squire, loves too carelessly. Betrayed by their naivete, vanity, and impulsiveness, their foolishness leads them into a calamitous triangle of seduction, retribution, and murder.