Thomas Hardy

Book Description

Whitbread Award winner Claire Tomalin's seminal biography of the enigmatic novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.

Today Thomas Hardy is best known for creating the great Wessex landscape as the backdrop to his rural stories, starting with Far from the Madding Crowd, and making them classics. But his true legacy is that of a progressive thinker. When he published Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure late in his career, Hardy explored a very different world than that of his rural tales, one in which the plight of lower classes and women take center stage while the higher classes are damned. Ironically, though, Hardy remained cloaked in the arms of this very upper class during the publication of these books, acting at all times in complete convention with the rules of society. Was he using his books to express himself in a way he felt unable to do in the company he kept, or did he know sensationalism would sell? Award-winning author Claire Tomalin expertly reconstructs the life that led Hardy to maintain conventionality and write revolution.

Born in Dorset in 1840, Hardy came of age in rather meager circumstances. At sixteen, he left home for London and slowly worked his way through many rejections to become a published writer. Despite his mother's admonitions to never marry, he wed Emma Lavinia Gifford in 1874 and, even though he fell easily in love, stayed true to her till her death in 1912. He frequently toured London society, but few felt they knew the true Hardy, and it is this very core of self that Tomalin elegantly brings us to know so completely.

Hardy's work consistently challenged sexual and religious conventions in a way that few other books of his time did. Though his personal modesty and kindness allowed some to underestimate him or even to pity him, they did not prevent him from taking on the central themes of human experience-time, memory, loss, love, fear, grief, anger, uncertainty, death. And it was exactly his quiet life, full of the small, personal dramas of family quarrels, rivalries, and at times, despair, that infuses his works with the rich detail that sets them apart as masterpieces. In this engrossing biography, Tomalin skillfully identifies the inner demons and the outer mores that drove Hardy and presents a rich and complex portrait of one of the greatest figures in English literature.

Customer Reviews:

A portrait of a writer and poet.......2007-05-30

Thomas Hardy's fame today, almost 70 years after his death, rests on great novels like THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES and THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE. It is thus surprising to learn from biographer Claire Tomalin that he considered himself mainly a poet who wrote novels only for the money. Taking him at his word, Tomalin devotes major attention throughout her book to how his poetry reflects the twists and turns of his career, the people he knew and loved (or disliked) and the places he visited.

Tomalin has been involved in British literary journalism for many years. A few years ago she wrote an engrossing book about Ellen Ternan, the young actress with whom Charles Dickens carried on a secret affair toward the end of his life. Her study of Hardy also looks at her subject's private life, but she functions also as a literary critic, subjecting Hardy's novels, poetry, short stories and other writings to a good deal of clear-eyed and fair-minded critical appraisal. The book, however, gets off to a slow start. She takes a chapter or two to find the right biographical voice, but once she has found it, she uses it skillfully indeed.

What readers are likely to find new in her book is its detailed attention to Hardy's poetry. He wrote over a thousand poems, many of them closely reflecting his life experience, and Tomalin's text is sprinkled liberally with samples. Read purely as poetry they are mostly excellent, but as here skillfully related to the events that prompted them, they take on even greater interest. On the evidence of this book, Hardy seems woefully underrepresented in most anthologies of British poetry.

Hardy was born in 1840 to a family of humble construction workers in Dorset on the channel coast of England southwest of London. He seemed headed for a humdrum career in architecture until he got the writing bug and produced a controversial novel that no publisher would touch. He was, however, sufficiently encouraged to keep at it, and the publication of DESPERATE REMEDIES in 1871 began his career's upward climb. He never attended a university, married the daughter of a country clergyman and was only gradually accepted by the class-conscious English society of his time. As his fame slowly grew, his marriage soured, and by the time Emma Hardy died in 1912, the couple was living as if separated even though they resided in the same house (Tomalin calls the situation one of "mutual incomprehension"). Emma complained in a letter that "he understands only the women he invents --- the others not at all." Hardy's second marriage, to a young admirer, seems in Tomalin's rendering to have been not much more successful --- Florence Hardy comes across as temperamental, easily offended and generally troublesome.

Hardy also lost his Christian faith, a fact that may be reflected in the bleak emotional landscape of his later novels, whose characters struggle, usually vainly, against malignant natural and cultural forces they cannot control. Yet Hardy characteristically continued to attend church services now and then, explaining lamely that it was good for people "to get clean and come together once a week." The man Hardy, Tomalin says, was "hard to know."

Once Hardy became "seriously rich" and famous, he took to enjoying high life among England's literary and social elite. He always insisted that he be buried in his beloved Dorset rather than in Westminster Abbey, but his friends overruled him after his death and there was a full-dress Westminster burial of his ashes, with A. E. Houseman, Kipling, Shaw and Galsworthy among the pallbearers. His heart, however, was first removed and buried in his hometown of Dorchester. Even in death, Hardy managed to have the best of both of his worlds.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

Tomalin Strikes Again.......2007-05-06

As a Thomas Hardy fans, I was thrilled when I saw that Claire Tomalin had followed her l997 biography of Jane Austen with this book. I enjoyed Jane Austen: A Life and had positive expectations of the new book; these were more than fulfilled. I find this book even better than the first.
Ms Tomalin writes well and is very thorough, making good use of sources available to her. I don't know if it was that she had more sources available to her this time, but her thoroughness seemed less nitpicky (she is never pedantic)is somewhow than it sometimes appeared in the earlier work. When she gives--parenthetically--the actual number of the first phone the Hardy's acquired, it is a sort of bonus rather than a filler. Hardy may have been a drab little man--as some contemporaries described him--but her description is not drab reading; it is compelling and enlightening, making one's joy in his work even greater than it already was. I am more familiar with his prose than with his poetry, and I particularly appreiated he use of his poems to illustrate aspects of his life and relationships. Ms Tomalin has done a truly lovely job of making me more familiar with my two favorite authors.

A Half-Hearted Hardy.......2007-04-17

No biography by Claire Tomalin can be anything less than interesting and readable, but unfortunately after her superior efforts on the lives of Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys in recent years Tomalin has produced a biography that is neither very needed nor one of her better efforts. Few of the great English writers have a life already better chronicled than Hardy, given the recent excellent biographical study by Millgate (not to mention the two-volume autobiography Hardy himself produced late in life and had published posthumously as a "biography" under the name of his second wife Florence). Tomalin's room to make a new mark here is thus very limited, and she does so by emphasizing his poetry, his relations with his first wife Emma, and by engaging in some very bizarre speculation based on the few areas in Hardy's life where we have very little evidence. Where such speculation was necessary for her lives of Austen and Pepys (given the comparative paucity of supporting materials about their lives, and, in Austen's case, of first-hand documentation of her subject's life), it seems perverse when dealing with a life so thoroughly documented both by Hardy himself and by those who knew them. In one instance, she proposes that because the name of Abel Whittle is THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE is also the name of a Dorset man who was a contemporary of Hardy's mother Jemima, that this might mean that Hardy collaborated with the plot of that novel with his mother--a highly dubious speculation.

Tomalin is on much more solid ground when she talks about Hardy's famous deteriorating relationship with his odd lonely wife Emma, who grew to loathe her husband in her later years and to document that hatred in great detail in her journals. Emma Hardy emerges as a much more distinct character in this work than does the droll, controlling Hardy or his frustrated second wife Florence, and again it might have been better had Tomalin stuck more to the facts to give a fuller portrait of her three main figures. The biography is also oddly too short, given the length of Hardy's life: odd details, like his brief meeting with the Prince of Wales in the twenties, whereas his relations with other writers (such as E. M. Forster) are given in barely any of the space they deserve. And at times Tomalin does not seem to have taken her narrative through the requisite drafts she might have: for example, midway through one paragraph she suddenly begins to describe in great detail a vitriolic attack Emma Hardy directed against Hardy's sister Mary without any explanation whatsoever of what prompted the tirade. Hardy's life was too rich, and Tomalin too good of a writer, for this book to be unreadable or uninteresting, but given her achievements with her biographies of Austen, Pepys, Katherine Mansfield, Mary Wollstonecraft, and others this book comes as a big let-down.

Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin.......2007-04-02

This was a very well-written biography and fulfilled my expectations of Claire Tomalin. It was brisk and readable, and very interesting to the point that I read through the footnotes after finishing the book. I have read many of Hardy's novels but never his poetry, and never a bio of him before. I found this book to be very interesting but it left me with the impression that I need to read earlier Hardy bios by Millgate and others to get a full picture of Thomas Hardy. I think it is a good overview of the man and a great introductory point for deeper study.

Masterful biography.......2007-03-21

Thomas Hardy has been my favorite author ever since I read "The Mayor of Casterbridge" as a sophomore in high school,'way back in 1962. Since that first book, I have read his novels avidly, and with great pleasure, as has my son. This new biography is simply amazing, for it recounts Hardy's full and active life, and even though it shows some of his warts, it gives us a picture of a man who used his life and struggles in his works. Mostly his poetry was generated from his experiences, but many of the characters and scenes of his novels came from his life in the country, and he even used certain buildings in his tales, changing the names, of course. We see here a human Hardy, flawed just as we all are, but striving mightily to give to the world his feelings and thoughts through his works. After reading this book, I appreciate Hardy even more!

Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Penguin Classics)

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Thumbs up from the Average Joe
Lush landscapes and thought patterns
Truly a Great Novel
Emotionally Difficult to Read, but Hardy's Beautiful Prose Carries You Along
Read Tess...but please also read the alternative

Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Penguin Classics)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141439599
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Book Description

Edited with Notes by Tim Dolin and an Introduction by Margaret R. Higonnet

Customer Reviews:

Thumbs up from the Average Joe.......2007-09-25

I agree with mulcahey (five stars, Sept. 23, 2003), who sounds like a college professor. I'm not a scholarly reader. I miss the hidden meanings, the underlying philosophy, and so on. I read purely for enjoyment (and sometimes education--read Lolita if you want to discover new words).

In addition to what mulcahey said, the book is simply highly enjoyable to read. It's very touching. It's the kind of reading experience that will leave you thinking about it for days or weeks. The writing style is elegant and poetic. Anyone who has tried to write will appreciate the grace and beauty.

It's not a light read, like something you take on a plane to ward off boredom. It's the kind of read that takes a little effort. The reward is definitely there, however.

Lush landscapes and thought patterns.......2007-08-03

By today's standards certain passages of this book may seem rather vague and subtle, but they were shocking when first written--enough that the book was subject to heavy censorship--vital passages from it were removed. And that is really what makes this book so grand. Its take on the double standards of the society in which fictional Tess lived may seem very distant from today's post-60's equality society, but it was very real then.

The book follows Tess' journey through the English countryside, but what makes it so fascinating is the constant flow of her thought patterns as she tries to rationalize the hand she has been dealt. The modern reader may be befuddled, as her thoughts are representative of another culture and another time, but what is fascinating is the little insights on human nature that shine through. The joy she feels tempered by the despair in her past. The ignorant self-righteousness of overzealous youth. The mistakes that even very good, well-meaning people can make, without realizing it, that hurt others deeply. We hope for her as she lives through the initial tragedy, the slow recovery, the surge of joy she experiences, we are disgusted at the hypocritical betrayal that eventually leads to her final breakdown.

The prose itself too has a personality, often taking time to smell the roses and indulge in the lush scenery, fascinating historical anecdotes and social interactions that Tess deals with on a daily basis. For those who over-glamorize the past, here is a very honest look at the physical and mental hardships people faced in it. Hardy quotes Ascham: 'We find a short way, by a long wandering.'

Truly a Great Novel.......2007-07-05

When I saw the depressing amount of 1-, 2-, and 3-star reviews for this novel, I had to wonder what had gotten into the general populace. Then I read the actual reviews, and realized something. They are reading this for pleasure, yes - but why in the world to people turn to a classic novel for a fast-paced, action-packed story? (Yes, I quote.)

Tess's is a dark tale, a depressing tale, a tale with no perky moments to speak of (seeing as how we all know it'll get that much worse should anything good happen). The language is poetic and ethereal, with descriptions of incredible beauty that I would give anything to have written and an overtone of intense tragedy and ill-fated cruelty. The characters are all conflicted and in turmoil, oppressed by the moral standards of the day, and Tess is likeable, as opposed to Emily Bronte's Catherine Earnshaw, say. I would like to mention that I chose this book to write a ten-page analytical paper on, know it cover-to-cover, and know that it is SO much more meaningfull when one stops to take in the paragraphs that scream, "Pay attention to ME!!!" I would also mention that I am not a college professor. I read this as a high-school freshman, which goes to show that this isn't just a book for the elite.

And in relation to all the readers who feel that Hardy is a bad author? I always believe that people who act as though they can write a classic far better than the author really ought to try their hand at writing a story that will survive the ages as well as Tess. Hardy writes in lyrical prose, in similar style to his poetry, and though I completely understand wanting to read "mind candy", I don't understand expecting books accepted as real literature to do the trick. Maybe try a trashy novel first, and read Tess to cleanse the palate.

This is, ultimately, my favorite novel of all time. Naturally, I have many more to read, but of all those I have tried, I have never read another that so seamlessly combined luminous tragedy, heartwrending romance, and cruel fate in a novel as beautiful as it is painful.

Emotionally Difficult to Read, but Hardy's Beautiful Prose Carries You Along.......2007-05-01

I went into "Tess of the D'urbervilles" with full knowledge of the harsh fate waiting for Tess, but that knowledge still could not prepare me for how harrowing and painful that journey was for her, and the reader. The character of Tess is so moral, innocent, kind, and unselfish against the society that is anything but, that Hardy's message of fate and social hypocrisy reveals itself full force in the novel. Tess has a love for life and an optimism that takes the harshest and cruelest society to beat down, and that is heartbreaking to behold.

I thought this was going to be a stuffy English novel, despite the fact I quite enjoy (most) Victorian novels I read. However, I discovered that Hardy's prose flows well and is even beautifully poetic. Some of the best lines come from Tess's mouth, showing that she is not only morally upright, but also smart and incredibly perceptive.

Hardy has a great way with words; romantic scenes are intensely passionate, emotional letters drip with feeling, and narrations delve into the feelings and thoughts of the characters so that the reader can understand, pity, empathize and sympathize with them. Most surprising perhaps is Hardy's understanding of the female mind; I think he has developed Tess into a believable and realistic heroine, and he has many interesting things to say about the differences of the genders, especially during that time period.

"Tess of the D'urbervilles" is a gorgeous yet heart-breaking novel. Not only does it entertain with its poetic prose and social themes, the novel also opens one's mind to the hypocrisy of the times; hypocrisies that even now may still appear in the thoughts and actions of people in this "modern" society.

Read Tess...but please also read the alternative.......2007-04-26

The popularity of Hardy's Tess makes me wonder why the apparent context in which the book was written seems to have been lost. Twelve years before Hardy's Tess hit the shelf George MacDonald's Paul Faber: Surgeon received a less controversial if almost equally popular release. While the two books could hardly be more different it is interesting that the fundamental plot elements are identical. A careful comparison of the scene in both books immediately following the confession of the recently-married protagonist of her youthful indiscretion to her unforgiving husband will reveal a passage where Hardy essentially quotes from MacDonald--and then flatly contradicts him. MacDonald's Faber is a longer, more complex story--perhaps less accessible than Hardy's. Where Hardy finds despair, cynicism, and ultimately destruction, MacDonald mercifully provides forgiveness, hope, and evidence of the divine in humanity.

Other reviewers have heartily recommended that you read Tess to discover how accurately great literature can portray life's struggles. If you liked the authenticity and poignancy of Tess but felt there must be another side of the story, please read Paul Faber.

The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies

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The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies

Manufacturer: Sage Publications Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0761949968

Book Description

A decade on after it first published to international acclaim, the seminal Handbook of Organization Studies has been updated to capture exciting new developments in the field.

Providing a retrospective and prospective overview of organization studies, this Handbook continues to challenge and inspire readers with its synthesis of knowledge and literature. As ever, contributions have been selected to reflect the diversity of the field. New chapters cover areas such as organizational change, knowledge management and organizational networks.

Part I reflects on the relationship between theory, research and practice in organization studies.

Part II address a number of the most significant issues to effect organizations studies, such as leadership, diversity and globalization.

Comprehensive and far reaching, this important resource will set new standards for the understanding of organizational studies. It will be invaluable to researchers, teachers and advanced students alike.

Praise for the Second Edition

“An excellent collection of papers giving a timely overview of the field”
—Gareth Morgan

“In this substantially updated, revised and extended edition of the widely acclaimed Handbook, the high standard of the contributions is maintained. Close consideration is given to newly emergent, such as networks and complexity, as well as more established topics. Metaphors of conversation and discourse are engagingly invoked to make and explore new distinctions, directions and connections. It is a key reference volume for more advanced students of this rapidly developing field”
—Hugh Willmott , Diageo Professor of Management Studies, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

“Giving the authors of the Handbook of Organization Studies the opportunity to revise and update their earlier contributions makes this Handbook unique. Comparing the revised chapters to their originals offers the reader unparalleled insight into how knowledge develops in our discipline. New frameworks and deeper understandings, grounded in continuing scholarship, abound in this updated classic”
—Mary Jo Hatch, C. Coleman McGehee Eminent Scholars Research Professor of Banking and Commerce McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia

The Return of the Native (Cover to Cover Classics)

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Rickman's reading brings classic to life.
Return of the Native audio book
Why I bought Return Of The Native
Classic worth listening to
Amazing

The Return of the Native (Cover to Cover Classics)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: The Audio Partners, Cover to Cover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1572705701

Book Description

The Return of the Native may be Thomas Hardy’s finest writing. His descriptive and lyrical powers are at their height, his evocation of the wilds of Egdon Heath unmatched, his dissection of Eustacia and Clym’s marriage unimpeachable. Perhaps nowhere else is Hardy’s point that the universe is simply indifferent more compellingly made. Winner of the British Spoken Word Publishing Association’s “Talkie Award” for Best Unabridged Classic Recording, this performance was commended by the Financial Times as “right for this tragic story of passion and loss.”

Customer Reviews:

Rickman's reading brings classic to life........2007-09-24

"The Return Of The Native" starts out slowly, but progresses nicely. What really brings this story to life is the narration on audio CD by acclaimed actor Alan Rickman. His talents are well used in this instance, and the old adage that, "If velvet could speak, it would sound like Alan Rickman" is proven to be true. It almost feels like you are listening to a play being acted out, as each character is given his own "voice", be it a man or a woman, and the different accents and dialects add to this feeling. The reading is given much feeling and emotion. Mr. Rickman even gets the chance to sing a little, in both English and French, what a treat to the Alan Rickman fan! I can't tell you what a treat is has been to settle in after a long hard day, slipping on the headphones, and laying down before sleep in the darkness with Alan Rickman speaking softly and close in my ears.... Ahhh... such SWEET dreams!

Return of the Native audio book.......2007-03-18

As a keen fan of Thomas Hardy, I have found this reading wonderful. Alan Rickman's rendition is beautifully paced and the characters were really brought to life by the variety of tone within his voice. Certainly, this is one of Hardy's gloomier works--but all the more fascinating for the picture given of characters in a truly remarkable landscape. I've always regarded Egdon Heath as the true hero of this work anyway. At a time when I have needed distraction from my own circumstances, this marvellous version has proved invaluable and I look forward to acquiring others to enjoy.

Why I bought Return Of The Native.......2007-03-10

If you are looking for a review of this story well, I'm sorry but I can't help you there. I bought this product (twice. Once on Cassette and again when it FINALLY came out on CD) strictly because Alan Rickman narrates it. I have no idea what the story is about but I can tell you that Alan has a LOVELY, Delicious, SEXY voice and if you are an Alan fan you will get many long hours of enjoyment from this CD. He even sings! For me it was well worth the money and one day perhaps I'll be able to actually concentrate on the story and not merely Alan's delectable voice!!!

Classic worth listening to.......2007-02-24

This is the third time I've listened to this audio book, something I have never done before. I must admit, it gets better ever time. The description of the characters is incredible - when have you read a whole chapter describing an individual? Or the landscape? Certainly way more verbose than modern style, but the observations stand the test of time, and paint pictures that linger. None of the characters is flawless, and the errors of omission in their acts toward each other results in no end of misery. But the view of life in another time, with all its physical differences and all its emotional similarities to ours is intrigueing. And Rickman is fabulous, capturing accents and personalities that reading myself in my cozy chair in Phoenix Arizona would never have known.

Amazing.......2007-02-13

The CD audio book of the Return of the Native actually deserves to be described as amazing. The lyrical prose of Hardy, combines with the incomparable voice and performance of Alan Rickman, to make this a genuine treasure.

Rickman, in his limited interviews, has repeatedly referred to himself as an instrument. In this product, the only part of that instrument he could utilize was his voice. It is more than enough: the pictures and action spring vividly to life. Listening to his performance is sheer joy, and it rapidly makes you realize how little his capability has been tapped by film - where the whole "instrument" is utilized.

I would give this product the highest recommendation.

The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)

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The Return of the Native is a reader's return to the joys found in Hardy's Wessex
Return of the Native
An opera of a book
Eustacia and the Heath: Two Sides of the Same Coin
absorbing atmosphere

The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 037575718X
Release Date: 2001-02-13

Book Description

One of Thomas Hardy's most powerful works, The Return of the Native centers famously on Egdon Heath, the wild, haunted Wessex moor that D. H. Lawrence called "the real stuff of tragedy." The heath's changing face mirrors the fortunes of the farmers, inn-keepers, sons, mothers, and lovers who populate the novel. The "native" is Clym Yeobright, who comes home from a cosmopolitan life in Paris. He; his cousin Thomasin; her fiancé, Damon Wildeve; and the willful Eustacia Vye are the protagonists in a tale of doomed love, passion, alienation, and melancholy as Hardy brilliantly explores that theme so familiar throughout his fiction: the diabolical role of chance in determining the course of a life.

As Alexander Theroux asserts in his Introduction, Hardy was "committed to the deep expression of [nature's] ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility, toward man."

Customer Reviews:

The Return of the Native is a reader's return to the joys found in Hardy's Wessex.......2007-07-18

The Return of the Native is a great Victorian novel. It's author is Thomas Hardy who published the book serially in 1878 prior to book publication. The main characters whose live are interwoved into a tragedy of Greek proportions are:
1. Clyde Yeobright-He is the Wessex native who returns from his career as a jeweler in Paris. Clym returns to the bleak landscape of Egdon Heath to be plummeted into a maelstrom of passion, sex, suffering and deceit.
2. Eustace Vye-The sexy daughter of a bandsmaster in Budmouth (real name-Weymouth) she is a seductress who dreams of a life of luxury. Eustace will marry Clym; run away with Wildeve and die in a tragic manner. Whether her death is a suicide or accident is not stated. Eustace joins Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Bathsheba Everdene and other memorable femme fatales creates by Hardy's agile pen.
3. Thomasin Yeobright-She is the young cousin of Clym. She falls in love with Wildeve, marries him and bears the former engineer/present innkeeper a baby. As the novel ends she weds the reddleman Gregory Venn. She is a an uncomplicated woman who is a pale version of Eustace Vye.
4. Wildeve-A failed engineer he operates an inn. Though Wildeve loves Eustace he marries Thomasin. He will later leave Thomasin to run away with his true love Eustace. He will drown alongside his paramour.
5. Mrs. Yeobright-The bright, strong and virtuous mother of Clym who hates his marriage to Eustace Vye. She dies when Eustace refuses to open the door to let her into the Yeobright's home. Mrs. Yeobright is, probably, modeled on Hardy's own mother.
6. Gregory Venn-He is a reddleman (one who provides paint to shepherds who mark the sheep in their flocks) who is in love with Thomasin. He enjoys spying on the main characters. As the novel ends he is a respectable dairy farmer.
The characters are often compared to insects or animals who must exist in a godless world controlled by the uncaring fates. Coincidence and irony are used in the complicated plot. Hardy's vision is dark and forbidding.
This Hardy classic includes his usual close attention to the lives of the common people; descriptive pages on nature and criticisms of animal cruelty.
Perhaps the greatest character in the novel is Egdon Heath. Human characters love, suffer and die but it lasts forever.
Thomas Hardy is one of the best English novels along with such luminaries as Dickens, Eliot, Austen and Trollope. It is always a pleasure to read and reread his words.

Return of the Native.......2007-05-19

The book has been reviewed extensively. It is a modern classic and should be read. You will enjoy it. More important, the buying experience through Amazon was as expected. The books arrived earlier than I expected, in pristine, brand new, condition. What more could you ask for?

An opera of a book.......2006-10-24

I read this novel when I was living in Japan. There were no English books avaliable where I was living but a motley collection of classics in the local library.

I found the book somewhat long and slow but loved the language and character desciptions, for example Hardy decribes the main female character Eustacia Vye as "Queen of the night whose passions and instincts would make a model goddess but not quite a model woman" with "pagan eyes, full of noctural mysteries. It is a opera of a book, long and slow but with moments of great beauty

Eustacia and the Heath: Two Sides of the Same Coin.......2006-03-25

Yes, the Heath is the centerpiece, but no more than Eustacia, for they are mirrors of one another, by turns cold and aloof, brooding, mysterious, somewhat wild, tempestuous, and a place where at times man must tread carefully. Some are inexorably drawn to the contours, shades and subtleties of Egdon Heath (Mother Earth) while others seek shelter from its periodic wrath. So, too, the people of the Heath seem divided about their Earth Mother, Eustacia - reading the worst into her or - in the case of many of its men - hoping against hope that the vagaries of nature will look favorably upon them.

This is the most descriptive portrayal of both woman and nature that I have ever read.

absorbing atmosphere.......2005-08-31

This is the 1st Thomas Hardy novel I picked up and one of his most visually striking; in that, you can see and feel the environment in which the characters live. The landscape here both traps and releases the people inside it. Eustacia is one of Hardy's best heroines, vulnerable and cunning within minutes. And part of the Hardy pattern where tragedy invades before the end of the story; tragedy, as he writes it, that is often accidental rather than forced. (the forced tragedy usually follows the accidental one.) Clym and Damon may be the 2 main sources of Eustacia's downfall, but she brings on her own fate, so to speak, by remaining disillusioned with where she is. Key other players bissect the main characters in equally helpful and not so helpful ways. The main "character" still remains Edgon Heath, the harsh, often beautiful setting, where everyone is almost destined to be doomed...

The Mayor of Casterbridge (Modern Library Classics)

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Allegory of the King Saul/David story
Powerful read, but not a happy one
Neither cheerful nor uplifting, but always compelling and moving!
Oedipus Updated
Compelling and Captivating

The Mayor of Casterbridge (Modern Library Classics)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375760067
Release Date: 2002-05-14

Book Description

One of Hardy’s most powerful novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with a shocking and haunting scene: In a drunken rage, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a visiting sailor at a local fair. When they return to Casterbridge some nineteen years later, Henchard—having gained power and success as the mayor—finds he cannot erase the past or the guilt that consumes him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a rich, psychological novel about a man whose own flaws combine with fate to cause his ruin.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the authoritative 1912 Wessex edition, as well as Hardy’s map of Wessex.

Customer Reviews:

Allegory of the King Saul/David story.......2007-07-19

Thomas Hardy has a reputation for writing bleak, sad stories. The Mayor happens to be my first Hardy read, and I can't tell you how saddening I found the overall tale.

Many points are made by Hardy: dealing with the past and its haunting effects; pride before the fall; and even the folly of mental inflexibility.

I couldn't shake the parallel of the King Saul/David story from the Bible while reading this. You have the powerful man who takes in an apprentice then becomes overcome with jealousy and envy as his apprentice eventually outshines him. And rather than putting his usurped life in perspective, allows his anger and envy to make matters much worse.

I saw Michael as a flawed man who is redeemed by his sense of duty and obligation.

I think the theme of duty to world versus self is important here. Michael's duty to his first family overrides his desire to be with his new girlfriend Lucetta. He probably would have been happier with Lucetta; but wouldn't we as the audience have seen him as selfish if he had chosen her instead of Susan? Both women were manipulative, one aggressively, one passively, so it probably didn't matter. But it does raise the question of how much of our personal happiness should be sacrificed for societal duties.

Donald Farfrae, the Scottish apprentice is put here purely to provide Michael Henchard with a foil. I don't feel he is developed at all, and is kind of dull, as is Elizabeth Jane.

There are character driven stories and plot-driven stories. And in plot-driven stories, you know that the characters' personalities or decision-making won't really matter in how things end. That's an aspect of Mayor...that some may find the most frustrating. You never could shake the feeling that destiny was unalterable. I, however, had no problem with it. It was a good ride.

Powerful read, but not a happy one .......2007-07-10

Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge is a story about Michael Henchard attempts at redemption and the many sorrows, pain, and misery that comes with his decision to uphold his pride and name. To say that Henchard is the only character that suffers in this novel would be a misrepresentation; almost every character at some point suffers immensely in some trial of life, whether it is death of someone close, pain of separation, or the frustration of a relationship. For these reasons, this work is not a "light" read by any stretch of the imagination, and will probably test even the optimist's patience in getting through. Still, Hardy's story, the descriptions of the countryside and the characters' inner feelings, as well as the way he ties together every character in this book, is a remarkable feat and makes for a powerful read.

The story begins with Michael Henchard walking with his wife, Susan, to the fair as they cross the countryside. While there, in an act of drunkenness, Henchard sells his wife to a sailor, and seemingly sets in motion his irreversible bad fortune. Not being able to find his wife the next day, he makes an oath to not drink alcohol for 21 years, the exact amount of years he has lived. The novel then fast forwards 19 years to find Henchard the Mayor of Casterbridge, and a noteworthy man of respect. Susan finds him, marries him after forgiving him, but there are many secrets that both parties have and will have until the end of the novel. It seems that many of these secrets are the character's downfalls. Henchard, while Mayor of Casterbridge, meets a man named Donald Farfrae, who he comes to like and implores to stay in town; however, eventually he and Farfrae become bitter rivals in not only their business and society, but also in their relationship with Lucetta, a woman who had an affair with Henchard in the past.

Henchard's fallacy of character lay in his stubborn pride and his foolish belief that name and appearance is everything. He sometimes tries to create a façade, or cover up one sin with another secret or problem. When he tries to persuade Lucetta to marry him, so as to not destroy her name, he retorts: "But it is not by what is, in this life, but by what appears, that you are judged." He is a tragic individual who seems to not be able to change his views long enough to make something right occur; when something does go well, it is short lived. He even gets to a point where he connects himself with an ominous and unpreventable fate, at one point referring to himself as Cain. He never really heeds Elizabeth's attempts at love until very late in the novel when tragic occurrences seem to be set in motion.

Still, despite all his problems, and all his pride, he is a "likeable" character because he makes the effort at retribution and is sorrowful each time he gets hit with a dilemma or makes an unfavorable decision. He has the willingness and conscience to try to amend his deficiencies, but, in the end, he just makes too many mistakes, and has too much pride to reverse his fortunes.

Neither cheerful nor uplifting, but always compelling and moving!.......2006-12-26

Michael Henchard, a down-on-his-luck, unemployed hay trusser, succumbs to the siren call of alcohol at a country fair. Subconsciously feeling his wife, Susan, is holding him back from success in this world, he awakes to sobriety the next morning and realizes that, in a foolish fit of pique, he has auctioned her and his daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, off to a sailor. Despite his frantic efforts to find them, they have disappeared. Ravaged with guilt over his selfish, impulsive act, he swears he will not take another drink for twenty-one years.

Whether his wife was indeed one of Henchard's problems is left for the reader to ponder as Henchard moves to Casterbridge, prospers wildly in business and eventually becomes the town's leading citizen and mayor. Henchard's wheel of fortune, however, begins to spin on a wobbly axle as Donald Farfrae, an enterprising young Scot travelling to seek his fortune, enters his employ as the manager of his business. At the same time, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane, re-enter Henchard's life believing that Michael Newson, the sailor who had purchased them some nineteen years earlier, has perished at sea. Henchard's life truly begins to come apart when Lucetta Templeman, a former lover, also moves to Casterbridge and, ashamed of her past romantic entanglement with Henchard, seeks to hold him to his promise of marriage!

Hardy raises many issues but, not expressing his own opinion through an unequivocal direction in the story's plot line, seems content to leave these issues as topics for sober analysis by his readers. Hardy questions the conflict between the merits of tradition vs modernization. There is the enormous irony that Henchard's success as a business person seems clearly attributable in part to his tee-totalling vow but is founded upon the five guineas seed capital raised through the auction of his wife and daughter! Henchard seems to epitomize the constant personal conflicts we all face between decisiveness and strength of character as opposed to impulsiveness and stubborn bullheaded intransigence! One wonders whether Lucetta is flighty, coquettish, thoughtless and selfish or is she an early manifestation of modern woman sadly out of time and years ahead of the ladies around her? Is Farfrae to be admired or scorned for his meteoric rise to power in Casterbridge and his complete devastation of Henchard's place among his peers?

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the entire novel comes with the discovery of Henchard's will and his words directing that the world leave him to rest in forgotten isolation and that no person mark or mourn his passing in any fashion. Once again, we are left to decide for ourselves whether Henchard's life should be pitied, forgiven, admired or looked upon with scorn and disgust.

To the readers of the day, "The Mayor of Casterbridge" would have been perceived as a darkly pessimistic tragedy that might have evoked emotions akin to those raised by Shakespeare's "Hamlet" or Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex". A classic worthy of the term, "The Mayor of Casterbridge", certainly never cheerful or uplifting, is however many, many things - compelling, moving, disturbing, thought-provoking and poignant. Above all, it is worthy of being read and enjoyed by any lover of classic 19th century British Literature.

Paul Weiss

Oedipus Updated.......2006-08-25

In the novels of Thomas Hardy, tragedy can be an externalized force like Egdon Heath in THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE or it can be of the internalized sort, the kind that Michael Henchard brings on himself in THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE. In either case, nature is unforgiving, a quality which is a given in any of Hardy's works. When tragedy is of the latter kind, then the protagonist is not unlike the doomed tragic hero from classical Greek drama wherein he is first seen as a great or simply a good man who suffers from a tragic flaw, the results of which drag him down so that by the end of the action, his state is so miserably pathetic that the reader/audience can do no more than shake their heads in sorrow at his downfall, that in another and less proud man need not have happened at all.

Michael Henchard is the post-Victorian man of mixed qualities who like Oedipus, commits a sin and then spends the rest of the book trying to make amends. His sin is maudlin self-pity. He allows his current debased financial position to lead him to drink, all the while blaming his wife and child. At an auction, he offers his family for the sale to the highest bidder. He ignores the warnings from those present that he is courting disaster. An unknown man offers the highest bid and off he goes, taking Henchard's wife and child with him. Hardy takes pains to place Henchard squarely in the middle of this somber farce. Hardy gives no name to the successful bidder nor does he allow the reader to note the wife's actions. She, surprisingly, remains silent, but weeping. Henchard, by contrast, is loud, crude, and obnoxious. He occupies central stage until the next chapter when he sobers up, is filled with remorse, and then tries to set things right. He fails and winds up the leading citizen of Casterbridge. The image of the drunken Henchard and the mayor Henchard are startlingly unlike. The latter is sober, industrious, and respectable, causing the reader to commiserate with him. But the tragedy of Henchard does not lie merely in a series of vain regrets. Just as he seems to undergo permanent rehabilitation of self, his ex-wife shows up again, with a new child from the now dead bidder. Hardy complicates the plot with his usual unwieldy complications. As a result, Henchard plunges again into the depths of despair; this time he shows that his old sins of false pride and egotism have returned with a vengeance. He tries to bankrupt his business partner Farfrae, for reasons purely of jealousy. It becomes progressively more difficult for the reader to maintain the same sympathy that they had earlier. Later, at the novel's close, Henchard is made to wander like a wounded Lear, and this alone partially elevates him back to his previous stature of a tragic figure. He, like Lear, dies repentant. From his death, the audience discovers that the essence of a tragic fall lies not so much in how much sympathy that protagonist garners during that fall but rather in how true to life his fall was. Michael Henchard was neither saint nor reprobate sinner. He was the Victorian Everyman with a mixture of goodness and mean-spiritedness, either of which could emerge under the right circumstances. At his fall, the reader saw that the "right" circumstances were sufficiently ordinary so that anyone of us might have done the same. This is the essence of the tragedy of THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE.

Compelling and Captivating.......2006-03-24

The first book I read out of Thomas Hardy's many works was "Far from the Madding Crowd" back in my secondary school days. I immediately fell in love with Hardy. Reading "The Mayor of Casterbridge" only confirmed that my liking for Hardy's works was not misplaced. The Mayor of Casterbridge is absolutely brilliant as the author uses his perceptive insights into the human nature to create very realistic characters with complex personalities. For example, Henchard is an alcoholic who suffers from many of the accompanying afflictions that include low self-esteem, shame, guilt, self-castigation, self-punishment, loneliness, a death wish, and a tendency to depression.

The book starts in the first chapter with a dramatic masterpiece that perfectly sets the tone and theme for the rest of the novel. A young man named Michael Henchard and his wife Susan and baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane enter a village where Henchard hopes to find work. They go to a country fair where Henchard, an alcoholic, gets drunk and sells his wife and baby to a sailor. Once Henchard sobers up, he realizes his mistake, and searches, in vain, to retrieve his family. Abhorred at what he has done, he swears off liquor and decides to make something of his life. The story unravels nineteen years later, when his wife and daughter come back to present themselves to him. In the course of the rest of the novel, Henchard who was now the Mayor of Casterbridge falls from grace, this being a result of his own character flaws and the hand of fate.

I enjoy reading Hardy's impressive prose, which is strong, sharp and descriptive. The various scenes the author describes are filled with vivid and compelling imagery that leave one wanting to read more and more. Thomas Hardy is especially adept at describing the environment which he has a deep seated love for. The ironic twists of fate provide a setting that demonstrates the brilliant writer that Hardy is where he expertly weaves a plot that shows the themes of the balance between fate and individual choice. That makes The Mayor of Casterbridge very pleasant to read despite the sad story.

For those who wish to study English Literature, The Mayor of Casterbridge is on the top of the recommended list. The book provides exceptional descriptions of England and its culture as well as exposing the student to themes of profound gravity and importance. The book provides clear and concise explanations, dialogue and emotional energy. It is well-written, is easy-to-understand and to follow.

History of Psychology Main Currents in Psychological Thought, A

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In-depth externalist history
get it--use it

History of Psychology Main Currents in Psychological Thought, A
Thomas Hardy Leahey
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall College Div
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0135336058

Customer Reviews:

In-depth externalist history.......2003-09-18

Thomas Leahey's History of Psychology has long been the preferred text for the graduate-level history of psychology course at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science at the New School University in New York. The reasons are its intellectual depth and challenge (appropriate for graduate students) that exceeds other texts; its unsurpassed attentiveness to a wide range of historical scholarship; its emphasis on a strong externalist (contextual) analysis of the history of psychology (especially appropriate here at The New School); and its suitability for separating the serious scholars among the graduate students from those who are not that committed to the intellectual life. The course this book serves plays a strong role in determining which students will continue on in the Ph.D. program. As with any history book for this huge and diverse field scholars will be able to argue about an emphasis or interpretation or omission here and there. But there is no more intellectually spirited writing at the high-end of the currently in press history-of-psychology texts than is found in this book. Some students cave in under the challenge of the book. The truly bright, interested, and motivated students, however, really shine when they study it.

get it--use it.......1999-07-18

Leaheys book is by far my preference of the history of psych textbooks (I've also examined Brennan's and Kendler's books). I use the book for personal reading and to give a sense of history and develppment to other courses. His book is especially notable for considering a wide variety of psychological ideas, and its consideration of the interaction of cultures, societies, and psychology. the only reason I give it four stars is because it's not quite as exciting as a novel and I want to see certain sections expanded - (eg. the intellectual-cultural roots of founding psychologists in Germany and Vienna) - but the bibliographies are especially meaty for a textbook.

Jude the Obscure (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Jude.....
WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK
Still holds up today
One for the ages
A book to commit suicide with....

Jude the Obscure (Dover Thrift Editions)
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486452433

Book Description

Hardy's masterpiece traces a poor stonemason's ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared — marriage, religion, education — and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought.

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Hardy's last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomily fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control. Jude Fawley, a poor villager, wants to enter the divinity school at Christminster. Sidetracked by Arabella Donn, an earthy country girl who pretends to be pregnant by him, Jude marries her and is then deserted. He earns a living as a stonemason at Christminster; there he falls in love with his independent-minded cousin, Sue Bridehead. Out of a sense of obligation, Sue marries the schoolmaster Phillotson, who has helped her. Unable to bear living with Phillotson, she returns to live with Jude and eventually bears his children out of wedlock. Their poverty and the weight of society's disapproval begin to take a toll on Sue and Jude; the climax occurs when Jude's son by Arabella hangs Sue and Jude's children and himself. In penance, Sue returns to Phillotson and the church. Jude returns to Arabella and eventually dies miserably. The novel's sexual frankness shocked the public, as did Hardy's criticisms of marriage, the university system, and the church. Hardy was so distressed by its reception that he wrote no more fiction, concentrating solely on his poetry. Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

Customer Reviews:

Jude............2007-09-17

Thomas Hardy... I wonder what his life must have been like in order for him to write such a tragic book. For those considering it, this book is a romantic tragedy of the highest degree. If your looking for a happily ever after, look elsewhere. But if your looking to run the gamut of human experience in books, this is one you will want to take up, I've never read a book that has taken such a sentimental turn for the worse than this. I hope this helps.

WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK.......2007-07-25

I love this book because it finally drove Thomas Hardy out of the novel writing business.

I don't know if Hardy was a sadist or a masochist or just chronically depressed and loved to spread the mood around, but either way he had no sense of humor.

However, after exposing myself to TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES and introducing myself to THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE and finding them both miserable company, I thought I'd give Thomas Hardy one more try with the story of a stonemason who has pretentions to learning.

JUDE THE OBSCURE, set in class-structured nineteenth century England, seems to be the model for modern American liberals. They don't seem to think people are capable of rising above "their station" or leaving "their class" the way Jude is thwarted in seeking advancement through learning.

There is one element in the book that rings true. After more than a quarter-century of association with a major American university -- as a student, and a graduate student, and an employee -- I can confirm that the attitudes of the professors of "Christminster" (a thinly-disguised Oxford) have remained constant. Their "class-consciousness" consists of political and intellectual high mindedness but they still think they're better than ordinary people.

The story: Jude wants to become an educated reverend gentleman but since he's self-educated he can't get his foot in the door of the University. He seems religious but it's only skin deep; the first woman who tries to seduce him succeeds without much effort. After faking a pregnancy she forces him to marry her. But Jude, adopting the attitude of his profs, always thinks he's better than she is (and he may be right) and the marriage isn't particularly successful. After they have a disagreement over the proper way to slaughter a pig Jude leaves her and his home town he makes his way to Christminster, where he works as a stonemason, drinks to excess, and meets up with his cousin Sue. Sue is a total nutcase. Her behavior is inexplicable. Though she keeps trying to present herself as liberated and modern, she really has severe sexual hangups. Like his first wife, Arabella, Sue toys with Jude. She keeps him dangling on the end of a chain, and jerking him to her when she needs to talk to someone. She has practically promised herself to another man, but she has some sort of breakdown when Jude finally tells her he married someone else a while back . . . so she rushes into a marriage that she doesn't like, then chucks it (apparently because it has to be consummated) and shacks up with Jude and their burgeoning family, and things really go downhill from there. I won't give away the ending. It's not worth it. But when you read it if you take it seriously you'll just want to go hang yourself up on a meathook.

All I can say is that Hardy strikes me as a shallow man with little understanding of the history and theology he disdains. His understanding of the Middle Ages -- or at least the understanding he puts in the mouths of his characters -- shows an amazing lack of erudition, even for his time. All he seems to have is "common knowledge" (which in this circumstance ranks with "old wives' tales")

SPOILER ALERT

Earlier, I said Hardy didn't have a sense of humor. I was wrong in a way, because, after being appalled by the horrors of TESS and almost sickened by THE MAYOR, I found myself giggling in JUDE every time things took a turn for the worse (here's a hint: in Hardy things never take a turn for the better). By the time I reached the suicidal child and his garrotted siblings, I was positively howling with laughter. Hardy, that stolid Victorian writer, needs finally to go the way of Grand Guignol and Victorian melodrama of the "you must pay the rent" variety. When something so achingly sad makes you laugh until the tears stand in your eyes you know it's a thing that's had its day.

Maybe that's why the thing (I'll forever think of this book as "the thing") garnered bad reviews -- it was simply too absurdly sad even then. Anyway, when people didn't fawn all over his new book Hardy got all hurty and took his ball and went home and devoted himself to plays and poetry. He never wrote another novel and for that we may be truly thankful.

I do some writing myself and thought of doing a satire of Hardy books, a la COLD COMFORT FARM, but I won't. A satire is no good unless someone knows its object, and no one gives a ding-dong for Hardy any more, and why should they? Oh, except for Hardy fans; and considering they actually eat this rubbish with a spoon, they must be dour, prim, humorless persons who wouldn't get a joke if it bit them on the shin.

All I can add is: Hey, Jude, take a sad song and make it better.

Still holds up today.......2007-06-04

This book is a classic about the effect on people's lives when they choose to engage in behavior that is totally against society's norms.

Story: The story itself consists of a number of vignettes. Each vignette is compelling and shows how the characters mature (or don't) well. The pacing dragged out a bit, but that is to be expected in a character driven story such as this one.

Characters: This is where I am most conflicted. Hardy does a masterful job with the characters of Jude and Sue. Despite having many faults and maddening defects, I was able to feel sympathy for each character as the story progressed. Hardy's secondary characters are less impressive. Arabella is a stock villain, tempting and trapping Jude with no remorse. Phillotson is a stereotypical martyr character. If Phillotson and Arabella would have had some of the same complexities as Jude and Sue, I would have enjoyed this book a great deal more.

This is a very depressing book. Jude's outlook is bleak at the beginning, and it never really improves. Still, it is a commentary on society and living in sin that is still applicable to today's world.

One for the ages.......2007-04-15

If nothing else, it makes one's own life seem not so tragic!

A book to commit suicide with...........2007-03-17

I watched the movie "JUDE" when I was a kid and ever since was stranged by it. I recently read the novel and to be honest, was very depressed from it. And I am and have always been a tomboy, someone who is hardly ever emotional... This book was one emotional trip due to many of its themes, as so many other reviewers here interminably wrote about and so I won't go into the many tradegies of Jude's life. I very much felt, and sympathized for both Jude and Sue and related to their harsh society they had lived in and that we delude ourselves to have changed since 1895. Because I did see the movie (and I must say that, even though it deviated from the book, it was nevertheless suitably done), I wasn't so much surprised by the chain of events. Many here criticized the bleak, grim tale of Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" on several specific events, but for me, I found the very ending of the book to be the saddest, austerest part of it(spoilers). Jude's death, I felt, was the Hardy's most horrendous, picturesque description of the ill guy I came to love and admire, lying in a couch, coughing and wishing his death. Regretting ever being born, Jude is alone (sueless) on his deathbed, feeling the warm wind of summer as it drifts in the room bringing with it musical notes from a graduation ceremony he himself never had the option to attend. The one thing I am not closed on, is the title for the book, which to my understanding was the third and final. But as my sister asked me: "why the obscure?" I answered I thought it was Hardy's mockery of society by naming its absurdity. This is because as one very fast realizes when reading this book, it is not Jude that is obscure, but rather society is, for forcing people unto structures, institutions and ways of life that from their foundations were never executable. I recommend this book to people who are emotionally stable.

Reading Alcoholisms: Theorizing Character and Narrative in Selected Novels of Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf

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An important book from a number of angles.

Reading Alcoholisms: Theorizing Character and Narrative in Selected Novels of Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf
Jane Lilienfeld
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312217099

Book Description

With Reading Alcoholisms, Jane Lilienfeld has produced a ground-breaking cross-disciplinary study using the social, psychological, and scientific literature on alcoholism and family alcoholism to examine the novels of Hardy, Joyce, and Woolf. Each of these authors was directly affected by the alcoholism of a family member or mentor, and Lilienfeld shows how the effects of alcoholism organized their texts: through the portrayal of a protagonist in The Mayor of Casterbridge, through the denial of parental alcoholism and its silent presence in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and through codependent reactive patterns of Mrs. and Mr. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse. With the remarkable empathy Lilienfeld has for human dimensions of alcoholism, she demonstrates that "the narrative strategies in each of these novels at times mimic the behaviors and feeling states often arising from alcoholism." Without an understanding of the multidimensional nature of alcoholism and the transmission of its effects across generations, any analysis of the work of these three literary giants is incomplete.

Customer Reviews:

An important book from a number of angles........1999-08-12

What Shays did for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in *Achilles in Vietnam,* Dr. Jane Lilienfeld does for alcoholism in her new book, *Reading Alcoholisms.* Lilienfeld's book reviews some familiar works of English literature dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries through the lens of what we have come to know about alcoholism, both the "disease process" itself and its somewhat predictable effects upon alcoholics, their families, and others close to them. At the time the works Lilienfeld focuses upon were written, there was no body of alcoholism theory; nevertheless, the authors of these works reproduced in painful detail what would later become familiar trajectories of personal and familial decline. One of the points Lilienfeld scores is to show that alcoholism as we understand it existed BEFORE we understood it. However crude and ineffective present treatments for them might be, alcoholism (and, by extension, other addictions) are hardly the iatrogenic diseases some occasionally claim. Lilienfeld allows her readers to think inductively about evidence in the texts. One might sometimes wish for her to validate our thinking by drawing more conclusions for us. But that's a small gripe. This is a fine book.

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Perfect
Hardy Poems
Great poems from a great novelist
The Poet of Past Time and Past Love

Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems
Thomas Hardy
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0333949293

Book Description

Thomas Hardy's first love was poetry. It was not until 1898, when he was 58, that his first book of poetry, Wessex Poems was published. For the final years of his life he abandoned fiction and devoted himself entirely to poetry; he is now not only regarded as one of the most important English novelists but is also a poet of major stature and increasing popularity. The Complete Poems includes Hardy's more than 900 poems, complemented by detailed notes. Collected here are his eight books of verse, all the uncollected poems, Domicilium, and the songs from The Dynasts. This edition contains an additional poem, The Sound of Her.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect.......2005-10-09

Perfect! What more needs to be said? This collection was delicious and is a treasure for any Hardy fan. Enjoy every bite!!

Hardy Poems.......2005-09-20

The book was in excellent condition and arrived as promptly as one could expect. As of this date I really haven't had a bad experience with any of my book orders. Thanks so much.

Great poems from a great novelist.......2003-09-27

Considering how depressing Hardy's novels can be, his poems are curiously uplifting, full of descriptive power and a love of rural England. Among his classics are "The Darkling Thrush", "Channel Firing" (great World War I poem), and "The Oxen" (beautiful Christmas poem about nostalgia and faith).

Like his novels, the poems illustrate Hardy's capturing of the past and his sense of something greater than us shaping our lives and our feelings. These are apparent in "Last Words to a Dumb Friend", his lament for his deceased cat. In this, the very home where the cat lived seems to resonate with the cat once he has passed to "the Dim" (i.e., beyond Death):

"And this house, which scarcely took
Impress from his little look,
By his faring to the Dim (NOTE: faring = travelling)
Grows all eloquent of him."

The Poet of Past Time and Past Love.......2002-10-28

Hardy had a life-long fascination with the paradox of memory: how people, events, and even isolated feelings can be buried by time and later resurrected in the fullness of emotional memory. His central aesthetic principle is that of `the exhumed emotion,' which one can wryly interpret as a graveyard variant of Wordsworth's "emotion recollected in tranquillity." But for Hardy, it was a mysterious capability, like his comment that "I am cut out by nature for a ghost-seer." Hardy's aesthetic of the "grotesque" frequently features past lovers as ghosts or elusive phantoms.

In "She, to Him III" he muses on the "souls of Now" who would disjoint / The mind from memory, making Life all aim, / And nothing left for Love to look upon." In this brief phrase, from the start of his career, can be found four of the major themes of his entire life and work: the present ("Now"), memory (past), Life, and Love, all in tension with one another.

The volume contains innumerable poems of unrequited love, regretted love, guilty love, repentant love, etc. etc. One of the great English poets of the 20th century. Ranks with Yeats and above Heaney.

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