Thomas Hardy
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Controversial when it was first published for challenging Victorian morals, Tess of the d'Urbervilles has become Thomas Hardy's most popular novel, catching the imaginations of generations of readers with its high drama, endearing heroine and powerful evocations of the southern English countryside. This edition contains a wealth of material about the author's life and works, extensive notes and a bibliographic section.
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"This Thomas Hardy novel was his first major literary success, even though he never saw it published. It is set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex and is enriched with his pleasant decriptions of rural life and landscapes. In in Bathsheba Everdene, our independent and spirited heroine, moves into her position as a farmer on a large estated in Weatherbury. During the novel, she attracts three very different men: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 10.2 - AR Pts: 42
Language
English
Description
Eustacia Vye criss-crosses the wild Egdon Heath, eager to experience life to the full in her quest for 'music, poetry, passion and war.' On her travels she meets Clym Yeobright, a native of the heath, but his idealism frustrates her romantic ambitions and her discontent draws others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 8.9 - AR Pts: 27
Language
English
Description
Jude the Obscure, the semi-autobiographical final novel from Thomas Hardy explores notions of surprising candor; within the eponymous protagonist lies the tragic truth of failed ambitions and relationships. In a fierce exploration of the darkness of love and the intellect, this is one of the great tragic novels of English literature.
Jude Fawley, an earnest boy from a rural English village, dreams of a life of academia despite his working-class background....
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 9.5 - AR Pts: 22
Language
English
Description
On a drunken impulse, Michael Henchard, a hay-trusser by trade, sells his wife Susan and their child to a sailor. Years later, Susan returns to Casterbridge a widow, to seek her legal husband who is, surprisingly, now the Mayor.
Author
Language
English
Description
First published anonymously in 1872, "Under the Greenwood Tree" is Thomas Hardy's story of the romantic entanglement between church musician, Dick Dewey, and the attractive new school mistress, Fancy Day. A pleasant romantic tale set in the Victorian era, "Under the Greenwood Tree" is the first of Hardy's "Wessex" novels and is one of his most gentle and pastoral stories. Dick falls in love with the beautiful and talented Fancy the moment he meets...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Elfride Swancourt is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Corwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began A Pair of Blue Eyes during the beginning of his courtship of his first wife, Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight. The former friends become rivals, and...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
In "Two on a Tower," a love story set against the background of the stellar universe, Hardy defied social norms of the day and shocked his readers. In what is today seen as the author's most important portrayal of love across physical and societal divides, the novel tells the story of Lady Constantine, a married, older, aristocratic, religious woman who falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, a young astronomer, single, lower class, and agnostic. Hardy's...
Author
Language
English
Description
A young woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by poverty to accept a post as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had been unable to marry. Cytherea loves a young architect, Edward Springrove, but Miss Adclyffe's machinations, the discovery that Edward is already engaged to a woman whom he does not love, and the urgent need to support a sick brother drive Cytherea to accept the hand of Aeneas Manston, Miss...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Trumpet-Major is a novel by Thomas Hardy published in 1880, and his only historical novel. It concerns the heroine, Anne Garland, being pursued by three suitors: John Loveday, the eponymous trumpet major in a British regiment, honest and loyal; his brother Bob, a flighty sailor; and Festus Derriman, the cowardly nephew of the local squire. Unusually for a Hardy novel, the ending is not entirely tragic; however, there remains an ominous element...
Author
Language
English
Description
Whether you're a long-time fan of Thomas Hardy's works or a first-time reader who is curious about the author of such masterpieces as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd, this collection of short stories offers a gratifying introduction to the renowned British naturalist's literary talent. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and nonfiction, Sheba Blake Publishing Corp. is extremely dedicated to bringing...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Jocelyn, a sculptor, is obsessed both with the search for the ideal woman and with sculpting the perfect figure of a naked Aphrodite. In his pursuit, he falls in love with three women from the same family: a grandmother, mother, and daughter. Themes of destiny and betrayal are explored in this compelling portrait of male and female relationships.
13) Wessex tales
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Ironic short stories. "Stockdale, a lonely young fellow, who had for weeks felt a great craving for somebody on whom to throw away superfluous interest, and even tenderness, was not sorry to join her." A collection of six novellas, written in the 1880s and 1890s, about the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions.
14) The Well-Beloved
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Set in the Isle of Slingers modelled on the Isle of Portland the novel continues to explore Hardy's favourite themes of relationships, exploration of human nature and human nature. The story follows Jocelyn Pierston, a celebrated sculptor who tries to create an image of his ideal woman in stone and attempting to find her in the flesh.
15) Selected poems
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
In the sphere of poets like Swift, Meredith and Kipling, Thomas Hardy is today becoming recognized as one of the greatest English poets of this century. As a young man with interests in journalism, art, and architecture, Hardy achieved greatness in the fiction genre early on, writing novels for a living until his mid-fifties. He then abandoned fiction entirely in order to devote himself to his true passion-poetry. This ample selection of poems demonstrates...
Author
Language
English
Description
A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters. The following stories are featured in this collection: The Son's Veto, For Conscience' Sake, A Tragedy of Two Ambitions, On the Western Circuit, To Please his Wife, The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion, A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four, The Fiddler of the Reels.
Author
Language
English
Description
Dip a toe into the literary oeuvre of British novelist and poet Thomas Hardy in this well-curated collection of some of his best short stories. Hardy was famed for his ability to create characters who struggle mightily against social mores and circumstances beyond their control, and this strength shines in the finely drawn characters who populate these tales. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and nonfiction, Sheba Blake...
Author
Language
English
Description
Ethelberta Petherwin, aka Berta Chickerel, moves with ease between her multiple identities, cleverly managing a brilliant career as a society poet in London. Her family act as her servants to help her conque the male-dominated literary world. Beautiful, clever, and rational, she soon attracts four very persistent suitors: Mr. Julian, Mr. Neigh, Mr. Ladywell, and Lord Mountclere.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Hand of Ethelberta explores the class distinctions of Victorian England through the trials of Ethelberta Petherwin. By the age of 18, the humble governess and daughter of a butler marries well, only to become a widow two weeks later. In order to support her mother and ten siblings, clever Ethelberta quickly learns to navigate the complex social world as a poetess and storyteller, attracting four persistent suitors along the way. She must decide...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Paula Power inherits a medieval castle from her industrialist father who has purchased it from the aristocratic De Stancy family. She employs two architects, one local and one, George Somerset, newly qualified from London. Somerset represents modernity in the novel. The changing of the old order in country manors and mansions may be slow or sudden, may have many issues romantic or otherwise, its romantic issues being not necessarily restricted to...