Thomas Hardy

[tyred]

I liked how Thomas Hardy sort of preserved, in words, the old ways of the English Rural Folk.

This is precisely why I would like to get to like Hardy's novels but worried reading them will have me reaching for the Valium, whiskey and razor blades.

 

[152l2]

Of no use at all to @tyred, but my commute takes me past Hardy's statue, past lots of his fictional locations, along the front wall of his house Max Gate then on to Woodsford castle where Hardy worked with his father, and close to Stinsford church where his heart is buried.

 

[User169]

P.S. Suggestions for non-Hardy classics that are worth reading are also wlecome.

If you enjoy Hardy's poetry, William Barnes' might appeal.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0AoAJw4igc

 

[Ian H]

To be fair to Hardy, he didn't really rate his novels either. He regarded himself as a poet who wrote novels for a living.

 

[perplexed]

The Trumpet Major was my introduction to Hardy and I still love it.
Return of the Native is a great read, as is Casterbridge and Madding Crowd. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the cream of the crop if you ask me, although actually quite upsetting.

Jude the Obscure. Well, I just got angry with him for being such a wet git, so spent the whole book wanting to beat him up...

 

[Yellow Fang]

I have read Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Woodlanders and Far from the Madding Crowd. FFTMC is the least miserable of the three, although it still has an awful lot of misery. However, I hear Under the Greenwood Tree is hardly miserable at all. I watched a DVD of Jude the Obscure and have no intention of reading it - way, way too miserable. What I like most about Hardy are his descriptions of agricultural life. They seem pretty accurate in the main, except in his later books he might add some magic effect. For example, someone I know, who is a professor of agriculture, told me that the problem with the wheat described in The Mayor of Casterbridge (I think) was the same problem he researched for his PhD. He strongly suspected that the secret cure given by the Scotsman was rather magical. OTOH, I thought Hardy had made some massive clanger in FFTMC in that the sheep were lambing around Christmas time, but there is a sheep called the Dorset Horn that does this. Then I thought the incident in the shepherd's hut in which Gabriel Oak nearly dies seemed rather unlikely, but then there were incidents like this reported. Oak's cure for sheep bloat was true too. One thing to bear in mind is that Hardy revised his novels quite extensively. The Penguin edition of Tess differs in some important respects from the Oxford World Classics edition.

 

[ASC1951]

This is precisely why I would like to get to like Hardy's novels but worried reading them will have me reaching for the Valium, whiskey and razor blades.

If you want a more upbeat telling of the change in rural life a century later, you can always try Laurie Lee's 'Cider with Rosie'. Another novelist-and-poet, as it happens.
Although Hardy was a late Victorian writer, his books are set in the England of his childhood. Another author covering the same period is George Eliot and I would argue that despite being written a couple of decades earlier her books are more influential, more modern in outlook and altogether more enjoyable to read.

 

[Rapples]

Another author covering the same period is George Eliot and I would argue that despite being written a couple of decades earlier her books are more influential, more modern in outlook and altogether more enjoyable to read.

Silas Marner is a particular favourite of mine, very easy to read, and a lovely story.

 

[dan_bo]

Me dad was a big Hardy fan. Looked a bit inpenetrable to me.

 

[Archie_tect]

Read Thackeray for the first time a few years ago and enjoyed those, to my surprise!

 

[pauldavid]

I like pretty much all the stuff he did with Stan Laurel

 

[tyred]

Well, on page 80 odd of Far from the Madding Crowd, and so far so good. The Valium is still at the Pharmacists, the whiskey remains in the Off-Licence and my razor blades stay in the bathroom cabinet.

Enjoying it so far actually.

Edite - typo corrected

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I like his beer, I've got a 2005 case of this, minus a couple of samples taken for ongoing quality inspections, it says best after 10 years, so next year's the year!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 3076763, member: 259"]Aren't they incredibly scarce now? How much is that lot worth! [/QUOTE]

That's a pic I nicked of the internet, I've only got about 20 bottles.

 

[oldfatfool]

Looks like Far from the Maddening Crowd then. Time to hit the charity shops. I still my Tess somewhere in my library big pile of books crammed into the bottom of my wardrobe.

Get a kindle, many classics including FFTMC are free