The Thomas Hardy thread

Cafe Society
1

I have reached the advanced age of 59-1/2 and have just started to read Thomas Hardy (it was quite cheap for my Kindle and I had run out of other things to read).

So far I have read Tess of the D’Urbervilles and am almost finished with Jude the Obscure. My untutored reaction:

I like his writing style very much, in terms of how he puts sentences together and the words he uses. His occasional slyness and sense of humor has been a pleasant surprise.

His heroes/heroines are likewise interesting. They tend to be unconventional (on purpose or accidentally) and get into conflict with society and with their loved ones about it.

But these two books, anyway, have been very frustrating to read from the vantage of 2009. These people, capable of independent thought, are so beaten down by Victorian norms that they can’t have the courage of their convictions, and I want to just scream at them: ‘Just tell him already!’ or ‘No, keep away from her, she will suck the life out of you and discard you at the end.’ Kind of like yelling ‘Don’t go in the basement’ at a horror movie, and similarly useless, because without the situation there would be no story.

I don’t know if I want to read any more of his books. I’ve read a few blurbs about them, and nothing grabs me.

Any Hardy lovers out there? Care to spend a minute persuading me to continue with this excellent (but frustrating, to me) author?
Roddy

2

I love Hardy. My favorite is Far From the Madding Crowd because it has an almost happy ending. :wink: I haven’t read Jude the Obscure yet. It’s on my list. (I’m currently taking care of the George Eliot gap in my education. )

His language is dense, but beautiful. I agree that his characters are very complex and very real to me. Their motivations make sense in ways that some other classic characters don’t. I can also sympathize with Tess’s tragedy more because, for the most part, it wasn’t self made. (Madam Bovary and Anna Karenina get no sympathy from me.) I remember the first time reading Tess and writing down quotes from it because the language was so beautiful and the sentiment so perfectly expressed.

3

Mayor of Casterbridge. Dude sells his wife to a sailor, becomes a successful merchant and mayor and then his past catches up with him. Hilarity does not ensue.

4

Try his verse. In some ways, he was a better poet than a prose styllist, and more respected in some quarters for his bitter, dark vision in verse.

5

It’s a downer all right, but I like this book. In my darker moments I want to use his will as my own:

6

I had read Return of the Native many years ago for a high school class and enjoyed it then, I started re-reading it recently to see if I would still enjoy it and I did.

I had mostly wanted to compare my reactions to the story from way back then to my reactions now…I was really curious to see if I had changed significantly in some way.

One thing I have noticed is I do seem to have a shorter attention span than I used to but that has nothing to do with the book, it is clearly me that has changed.

Anyway I would recommend ROTN, there are interesting characters (although you do want to scream at them some times) and a good, moody atmosphere throughout much of it.

7

FFTMC is on the short list of my all-time fave, with TMOC not far behind. What is the comment after he shoots his dog? Something about the reward due all overachievers? (admittedly horrendous paraphrase)

Never was a big fan of Tess.

8

Far From the Madding Crowd is outstanding and my favorite of Hardy’s. I also liked the movie with Julie Christie and Alan Bates.

9

My favorite of Hardy’s is The Mayor of Casterbridge. I was actually led to reading Hardy originally by watching The Claim, which is a very good Western film based on TMoC. It was filmed in British Columbia – gorgeous film.