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Jean Adam (1710 - 1765) British poet and teacher born in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Being orphaned at an early age she went into domestic service for a local minister, using his library to educate herself. Her religious poems, often deeply pious and didactic, were collected and published in Glasgow in 1734 as Miscellany Poems, by Mrs. Jane Adams, in Crawfordsdyke. Her enthusiasm for ameliorating the social position of women was evinced by her founding of a girls' school in Scotland. She was reported to have closed this for six weeks in order to walk to London to meet Samuel Richardson, whose Clarissa had so moved her. She died in Glasgow's poor house, having been admitted as an impoverished vagrant. Much of her work has been ignored since her death, and she remains best known for being the supposed author of the song, much admired by Burns, 'There's nae luck about the house'.
Adam Bede (1859) Extraordinarily popular when it first appeared, this novel by George Eliot is set in the Midlands at the beginning of the 19th century. Its scenes of rural life and detailed characterization have often led it to be described as a quintessentially 'realist' novel, along with Eliot's other works. The plot is based around four main characters: Adam Bede, the village carpenter, Hetty Sorrel, the woman he loves, Arthur Donnithorne, the local squire, and Dinah, the methodist preacher. The relationship of Hetty; who is seduced by flattery and attention, with Arthur reaches a tragic conclusion when she is imprisoned for infanticide, and 'some fatal influence seems to have shut up her heart against her fellow creatures'. Like other novels by Eliot, Adam Bede was conceived as a moral book in which all the main characters learn through suffering, so that Adam becomes worthy enough to marry the caring Dinah, Arthur comprehends the consequences of his actions, and Hetty's confessional to Dinah allows her to both give and receive forgiveness