Thomas Hardy, página 7 de 28

This is the annotated edition including a rare biographical essay on the life and works of the author.The scenes of Hardys novel are located chiefly on "The Isle of Stingers," South Wessex, and the story deals with the emotional experiences of Jocelyn Pierston, a sculptor and native of the isle. Pierston is condemned by his mental constitution to pursue through life his ideal of woman, a curiously capricious, protean creature, who never tarries long in the same human form. The sculptor is, he declares, always faithful to his Well-Beloved, but she has so many embodiments that he produces the effect of extreme volatility. She is "a spirit, a dream, a frenzy, a conception, an aroma, an epitomized sex." She is never in two places at the same time, but she is never in one place long. She has a habit of appearing in a fresh incarnation at the most inconvenient seasons. In the first book, for instance, just as Pierston has promised marriage to Avice Caro, an island girl who is, like himself, of the old stock there, and whom he respects largely because she does not embody the Well-Beloved, the latter lady turns up in the person of Marcia Bencomb, and the sculptor deserts Avice abruptly and returns to London. He does not marry Marcia, but goes on making capital out of his emotions by translating his unattainable dream into plaster, winning popularity thereby. When he comes back to the island, after twenty years, he finds the creature of his visions in the daughter of Avice, and would marry her if he could.

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.

"The Hand of Ethelberta" (1876) was described by Hardy as "A Comedy in Chapters." It bears out fairly well the claims of its sub-title. The heroine, Ethelberta, is a butlers daughter, who, having been educated above her station, marries a young, wealthy, and well-born husband and is soon left a fashionable widow. She now essays the difficult role of moving in polite society while still preserving secret relations with her family. Her sister becomes her maid, her brother her footman, and once she is actually waited on at a dinner party by her father, the butler. Naturally such a plot furnishes Mr. Hardy with much opportunity for delicate satire on fashionable society as well as for indulging in his accustomed humor. Ethelberta publishes poems, recites her own stories, loves a poor gentleman, is wooed by several eligible suitors, and finally marries a worn-out peer. If it were not that she gets the upper hand of her old husband and is enabled to lift up and support her family the end of the story would be tragic, rather than comic; but, viewed as a whole, it is an amusing comedy which deserves more popularity than it seems to have had. Certainly Mr. Hardy has drawn few more interesting characters than his "squirrel haired" Ethelberta.

In "A Laodicean" (1881) Mr. Hardy became less spontaneous and charming, although more subtle and, perhaps, more powerful. The heroine, Paula Power, the Laodicean, neither hot nor cold, is a most interesting study in feminine psychology. The three leading male charactersSomerset, the architect, Dare, the adventurer, and Captain de Stancy, the scion of a decayed familyare well drawn.

This is the annotated edition including a rare biographical essay on the life and works of the author.Thomas Hardy was not only one of Englands best novelists but also a highly gifted poet. This edition is one of the most complete on the book market and contains every single poem, carefully arranged in the original order of the books in which they were published (therefore a small percentage of duplication possible ). Let yourself be inspired by Mr. Hardys brilliant romanticism.This edition contains several hundred poems.

Relanzada a la popularidad por su presencia y su papel en la exitosa serie "Cincuenta sombras de Grey", "Tess, la de los d''Urberville" retrata la vida rural del sur de Inglaterra a través de la figura de la protagonista, descendiente de una familia aristocratica empobrecida. Forzada por un aristocrata y condenada por una sociedad de moral estricta, Tess se rebela contra el destino que se le impone guiada por su innata independencia, su incapacidad de comprender el doble rasero con el que se juzga la conducta de los sexos y, sobre todo, por sus deseos de alcanzar la felicidad.Relanzada a la popularidad por su presencia y su papel en la exitosa serie "Cincuenta sombras de Grey", "Tess, la de los d''Urberville" retrata la vida rural del sur de Inglaterra a través de la figura de la protagonista, descendiente de una familia aristocratica empobrecida. Forzada por un aristocrata y condenada por una sociedad de moral estricta, Tess se rebela contra el destino que se le impone guiada por su innata independencia, su incapacidad de comprender el doble rasero con el que se juzga la conducta de los sexos y, sobre todo, por sus deseos de alcanzar la felicidad.

After the death of his wife Emma, a grief-stricken Hardy wrote some of the best verse of his career. Moving and evocative, it ranks among the greatest elegiac poetry in the language.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin''s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Thomas Hardys popular and enduring novel, adapted for the stage by Mark Healy.Having inherited her fathers farm, the spirited and feisty young Bathsheba Everdene finds herself playing mistress in a mans world. She is pursued by three would-be lovers: the constant shepherd, Gabriel Oak; the obsessive landowner, William Boldwood; and the reckless Sergeant Troy. But are any of them a match for the headstrong and independent Bathsheba?Mark Healys adaptation of Thomas Hardys Far from the Madding Crowd was first performed by English Touring Theatre in 2008.This edition includes notes on producing the play yourself, including advice on cast size, staging, music and accents.

Bathsheba Everdene is a headstrong young woman who attracts the attentions of a succession of ill-matched suitors: a quiet sheep farmer, a handsome soldier and an older, wealthy landowner. As the men vie for her affections, she struggles to retain her independence of spirit in the face of their declarations. Introducing readers to the fictional county of Wessex, Thomas Hardy's fourth work of fiction was one of his greatest triumphs, both commercially and critically. Its tale of passion, jealousy and unrequited love is now regarded as one of the finest novels of the nineteenth century, and one of the greatest love stories of all time.