Powell's Review-A-Day: Adam Bede

I've been enjoying the "Review-A-Day" service from Powell's, not least because you never know what will show up next. Today's choice, for instance, was quite surprising: an Atlantic Monthly review of Adam Bede from 1859:

Adam Bede is remarkable, not less for the unaffected Saxon style which upholds the graceful fabric of the narrative, and for the naturalness of its scenes and characters, so that the reader at once feels happy and at home among them, than for the general perception of those universal springs of action which control all society, the patient unfolding of those traits of humanity with which commonplace writers get out of temper and rudely dispense. (read the rest here)

Anyone still seeking holiday gifts for bookish friends should also note that Powell's is the source for the ever-popular Jane Austen action figure, complete with removable quill pen. If you think she'll be lonely, you can also get Dickens (removable hat!), Oscar Wilde (imagine the dialogues they'll have), Shakespeare (of course), or Sherlock Holmes, not to mention Mozart, Freud, and Einstein...