Thomas Hardy, página 5 de 27

(See also: #122, a different edition)

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy DUrbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her cousin Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the DUrbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardys novels.

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.

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled 'A Story of a Man of Character', Hardy's powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.

Here you will find the complete novels of Thomas Hardy in the chronological order of their original publication.- Desperate Remedies- Under the Greenwood Tree- A Pair of Blue Eyes- Far from the Madding Crowd- The Hand of Ethelberta- The Return of the Native- The Trumpet-Major- A Laodicean: a Story of To-day- Two on a Tower- The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid- The Mayor of Casterbridge- The Woodlanders- Tess of the dUrbervilles- Lifes Little Ironies- Jude the ObscureIncludes Bonus two short stories- The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1- The Three Strangers

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.

In this powerful depiction of a man who overreaches himself, hardy once again shows his acute psychological grasp and his deep-seated knowledge of mid-nineteenth-century dorset.

Thomas hardy`s last novel is focused on the themes of sex and marriage. The tragedy of jude`s struggle for happiness is intensified by the lack of opportunity for the ordinary man to improve his lot, despite the changes and developments of victorian society.

Here you will find the complete novels of Thomas Hardy in the chronological order of their original publication.- Desperate Remedies- Under the Greenwood Tree- A Pair of Blue Eyes- Far from the Madding Crowd- The Hand of Ethelberta- The Return of the Native- The Trumpet-Major- A Laodicean: a Story of To-day- Two on a Tower- The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid- The Mayor of Casterbridge- The Woodlanders- Tess of the dUrbervilles- Lifes Little Ironies- Jude the ObscureIncludes Bonus two short stories- The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1- The Three Strangers

Set in the bleak, magical Wessex landscape so familiar from Hardy's early work, Tess's cruel story reveals circumstances slowly closing in on her as she attempts to grasp a few moments of happiness w

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.

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.

Here you will find the complete novels of Thomas Hardy in the chronological order of their original publication.- Desperate Remedies- Under the Greenwood Tree- A Pair of Blue Eyes- Far from the Madding Crowd- The Hand of Ethelberta- The Return of the Native- The Trumpet-Major- A Laodicean: a Story of To-day- Two on a Tower- The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid- The Mayor of Casterbridge- The Woodlanders- Tess of the dUrbervilles- Lifes Little Ironies- Jude the ObscureIncludes Bonus two short stories- The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1- The Three Strangers

Bathsheba Everdene is young, proud, and beautiful. She is an independent woman and can marry any man she chooses - if she chooses. In fact, she likes her independence, and she likes fighting her own battles in a man's world. But it is never wise to ignore the power of love. There are three men who would very much like to marry Bathsheba. When she falls in love with one of them, she soon wishes she had kept her independence. She learns that love brings misery, pain, and violent passions that can destroy lives . . .