Thomas Hardy, página 2 de 28

Two On A Tower is a tale of star-crossed love in which Hardy sets the emotional lives of his two lovers against the background of the stellar universe. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is eight years her junior. Her husbands death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart. This is Hardys most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide and the fullest expression of his fascination with science and astronomy.

A Novel By the author of " Far from the Madding Crowd,""A Pair of Blue Eyes," etc."A valuable accession tothe ranks of modern novel writing authors. . . Not only quick observations and sparkling humor, and true moral instinct, but a delicate and subtle analysis of varieties of character and moods of feeling, a poets sympathy with human passion, and an artists eye for every aspect of nature." London Spectator"A remarkable story. . . . The plot is worked out with abundant skill, but the essence of the book is precisely what it ought to be, namely, the evolution of character. . . His deserts are of no ordinary kind." London Saturday Review."The characters of the story are often exceedingly good. The construction of tile story is very curious. "-London Athenaeum.

Jude o escuro é a última e máis célebre novela de Thomas Hardy. Publicouse inicialmente por entregas na Harper''s New Monthly Magazine e non foi até 1895 cando saíu editada nun volume de seu. Xa revista, xa libro, converteuse nun escandalo mesmo houbo un bispo, o de Wakefield, que a queimou en publico, e basta sinalar que o enxeño da critica deu en transformala en Jude o obsceno. Esta obra expon os sentimentos e paixons mais fondos do autor ingles; faino por boca de diversos personaxes, co mozo Jude Fawley como protagonista e fio condutor dunha tramaemocionante e turbulenta. A historia, pioneira na maneira de lles presentar a sua vision da realidade aos lectores no tocante ao sexo, ao desexo, ao instinto, ao matrimonio ou as crenzas relixiosas, ten ademais o engado de se desenvolver na rexion de Wessex, un tan soado coma singular territorio literario.A partir do que en efecto fora un reino anglosaxon previo a invasion normanda, Hardy utilizou este espazo como marco para varias das suas novelas, cuxo marcado acento rural brilla con forza neste libro. Que dira a xente do futuro cando volva a vista cara aos costumes barbaros e as supersticions destes tempos que tivemos a mala sorte de vivir?, sentencia un dos personaxes.

Far From The Madding Crowd By Thomas HardyAuthor Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928Title Far from the Madding CrowdLanguage English

A special edition of Hardys brilliant novel to tie in with the major new film starring Carey Mulligan, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge and Matthias Schoenaerts, based on David Nicholls screenplay.Hardys powerful novel of swift sexual passion and slow-burning loyalty centres on Bathsheba Everdene, a proud working woman whose life is complicated by three different men - respectable farmer Boldwood, seductive Sergeant Troy and devoted Gabriel - making her the object of scandal and betrayal. Vividly portraying the superstitions and traditions of a small rural community, Far from the Madding Crowd shows the precarious position of a woman in a mans world.Formerly a prize-winning architectural student, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) went on to become a prolific novelist and poet. Far From the Madding Crowd is the second of Hardys great series of Wessex novels. His other novels include Under the Greenwood Tree, The Return of the Native, Two on a Tower, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the DUrbervilles and Jude the Obscure, all of which are available in Penguin Classics.

Like " Tess of the DUrbervilles," the story of "Jude the Obscure" is a manifestation of the authors later mannera manner which is a natural and almost inevitable development in a writer who possesses Mr. Hardys extraordinary capacity for observation, profound knowledge of human nature, and philosophical ideas concerning the problem of existence. Mr. Hardy has never been an author to write novels merely for the purpose of providing entertainment, or for illustrating in more or less persuasive form some preconceived didactic proposition. He has been content to take men and women as they are, and no one in English fictionpossibly no one in the whole range of modern literaturehas been able to surpass him in depicting the reaction of circumstances upon character. In this carefully reasoned, closely woven narrative of " Jude the Obscure" he sets before us the entirely natural and consistent experiences of two sensitive and impulsive creatures, who have been profoundly and disastrously affected by the changes in popular thought regarding ideals of religious faith and personal conduct; who, yielding to their thoroughly undisciplined emotions, work out for themselves a destiny full of bitterness and sorrow. It has been said that Mr. Hardy is not a writer to work on preconceived theories,but he certainly has some effective doctrines regarding the behavior of the two sexes under similar conditions, and when one comes to analyze this story one finds that a settled conviction underlies its entire texture, and this conviction is that misfortunes and disappointments, which soften the heart of man and tend to make him more considerate and charitable in his dealings with his fellows, have as a rule a contrary effect upon the heart of a woman.

Tess is just a humble milkmaid when the local landowner has his wicked way. Her new beau, the smarmy Angel Clare, is none too pleased when he finds out shes already been deflowered. What is a girl to do? Bloody revenge of course, and an ending to touch the hardest of hearts.

Jude Fawley's hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking 'New Woman'. Refusing to marry merely for the sake of religious convention, Jude and Sue decide instead to live together, but they are shunned by society and poverty soon threatens to ruin them. Jude the Obscure, Hardy's last novel, caused a public furore when it was first published, with its fearless and challenging exploration of class and sexual relationships.

Jude Fawley's ambitions to go to university are thwarted by class prejudice and his entrapment in a loveless marriage. His doomed love affair with his unconventional cousin has tragic consequences. Hardy's last, and most controversial novel, this revised edition has the first truly critical text, a new chronology and bibliography, and substantially revised notes.

Retenidos por el mal tiempo en un museo municipal, los miembros del Club de Naturaleza y Arqueología de Wessex deciden entretenerse contando curiosas historias «de hermosas damas, de sus amores y sus

Maravillosa edición de Grandes Clásicos Literatura Random House de esta novela sobre la naturaleza del amor y la fatalidad del deseo, por uno de los novelistas ingleses más importantes de finales del siglo XIX. "Habia algo en la muchacha que no se podia pasar por alto: sus ojos. Eran como una sublimacion de su persona; no era necesario buscar mas alla: en los ojos estaba toda ella." Unos ojos azules se desarrolla en torno a la consideracion -a menudo falsa- que los hombres tienen de las mujeres. Elfride, una bella joven de ojos azules, es la hija del rector de Endelstow, un remoto encl ave de Cornualles. Elfride pronto se vera atrapada entre dos hombres, el joven arquitecto Stephen Smith y un viejo hombre de letras, Henry Knight, que arruinaran su amistad por la chica. A lo largo de la novela surgen asuntos como las relaciones sentimentales entre clases sociales diferentes, la naturaleza del amor o la fatalidad del deseo. Esta obra, considerada una de las mas interesantes y autobiograficas del autor, ha sido vertida al castellano por la virtuosa mano de Damia Alou. Incluye, ademas, una introduccion escrita por el propio traductor.

Thomas Hardy, Alan Manford (Editor), Tim Dolin (Introduction by)'Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.' Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight. The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice. Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was. Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?

Classic / British English (Available May 2008) Michael Henchard is a wealthy and respected man, but he has a terrible secret. Twenty years ago, when he was unemployed and penniless, he sold his wife to a sailor. Now she is looking for him again. Why? And what will happen when she finds him?

Classic / British English (Available May 2008) Gabriel Oak is an honest, hard-working young farmer, who falls in love with the beautiful and independent Bathsheba Everdene. After a tragic accident, Gabriel loses his farm. Bathsheba, on the other hand, becomes rich. Is there any hope for Gabriel?

Una delle caratteristiche principali dellarte narrativa di Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) e quella di ridurre i piu ardui problemi dello spirito a poche idee forti ed elementari. I cinque racconti compresi in questa raccolta, La tragedia di due ambizioni, Il veto del figlio, Per sua moglie, LUssaro malinconico e Tradizione dellanno 1804, hanno un unico filo conduttore: lambizione. Ma non vista come impulso positivo per ottenere qualcosa nella vita, piuttosto come un demone distruttivo degli affetti e delle relazioni, che non lascia la presa finche il povero malcapitato non si ritrova da solo di fronte ad unimmane tragedia. Lambizione vista come pulsione che riesce ad evidenziare il contrasto tra la vita ideale desiderata da un uomo e quella reale che gli tocca di vivere.