Carti in categoria Literature & Biography

The young Thomas Hardy, working as an architect, but fired with literary ambition, tried for years to get into print. He finally succeeded with Desperate Remedies, a 'sensation novel' in the mode of Wilkie Collins. Here was a racy specimen of the genre, replete with sudden death, dark mysteries, intriguing clues, fire and storm, flight and pursuit.Anyone who enjoys The Woman in White is likely to enjoy Desperate Remedies. But that is only half the story. Hardy contrived also, in this unlikely co...

Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak and his love for and pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene, whose wayward nature leads her to both tragedy and true love.It tells of the dashing Sergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was `...the past was yesterday; never, the day after', and lastly, of the introverted and reclusive gentleman farmer, Mr Boldwood, whose love fills him with `...a fearful s...

Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional cousin, Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcasts proves undermining, and when tragedy occurs, Sue has no resilience and Jude is left in despair.Hardy's portrait of Jude, the idealist and dreamer who is a prisoner of his own physical natu...

None of the great Victorian novels is more vivid and readable than The Mayor of Casterbridge. Set in the heart of Hardy's Wessex, the 'partly real, partly dream country' he founded on his native Dorset, it charts the rise and self-induced downfall of a single 'man of character'. The fast-moving and ingeniously contrived narrative is Shakespearian in its tragic force, and features some of the author's most striking episodes and brilliant passages of description. An aparitie: 1998Format: 17,4 X1...

The Return of the Native is widely recognised as the most representative of Hardy's Wessex novels. He evokes the dismal presence and menacing beauty of Egdon Heath - reaching out to touch the lives and fate of all who dwell on it. The central figure is Clym Yeobright, the returning `native' and the story tells of his love for the beautiful but capricious Eustacia Vye.As the narrative unfolds and character after character is driven to self-destruction the presence of the Heath becomes all-embraci...

Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman, infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic.It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d'Urbeville. In her search for respectability her fortunes fluctuate wildly, and the story assumes the proportions of a Greek ...

With an Introduction and Notes by Charles P.C. Pettit.Thomas Hardy's only historical novel, The Trumpet Major is set in Wessex during the Napoleonic Wars. Hardy skilfully immerses us in the life of the day, making us feel the impact of historical events on the immemorial local way of life - the glamour of the coming of George III and his soldiery, fears of the press-gang and invasion, and the effect of distant but momentous events like the Battle of Trafalgar.He interweaves a compelling, bitter-...

Introduction and Notes by Jane Thomas, University of Hull.The Well-Beloved completes the cycle of Hardy's great novels, reiterating his favourite themes of man's eternal quest for perfection in both love and art, and the suffering that ensues. Jocelyn Pierston, celebrated sculptor, tries to create an image of his ideal woman - his imaginary Well-Beloved - in stone, just as he tries to find her in the flesh.Powerful symbolism marks this romantic fantasy that Hardy has grounded firmly in reality w...

Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury.Wessex Tales was the first collection of Hardy's short stories, and they reflect the experience of a novelist at the height of his powers. These seven tales, in which characters and scenes are imbued with a haunting realism, show considerable diversity of content, form and style, and range from fantasy to realism and from tragedy to comedy.In insisting on the unusual nature of any story wor...

With an Introduction and Notes by Phillip Mallett, Senior Lecturer in English, University of St Andrews.Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock and cannot marry her intended, Giles Winterborne. Her alternative choice proves disastrous, and in a moving tale that has vibrant characters, many humorous moments and genuine pathos coupled with tragic irony, Hardy eschews a happy ending.With characteristic derision, he exposes the cruel indifference ...

The Penguin English Library Edition of Two on a Tower by Thomas HardyThen they proceeded to scan the sky, roving from planet to star, from single stars to double stars, from double to coloured stars...Hardys atmospheric, moving story of star-crossed lovers shows human beings at the mercy of forces far beyond their control, setting a tragic drama of human passion and conflict against a background of vast stellar space and scientific discovery. Two on a Tower tells the story of Lady Constantine, w...

She bared her poor curst armA jealous lovers curse and an ingenious party trick feature in these two suspenseful stories set in Hardys imaginary Wessex.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants....

The Penguin English Library Edition of Tess of the DUrbervilles by Thomas HardyI would be content, ay, glad, to live with you as your servant, if I may not as your wife; so that I could only be near you, and get glimpses of you, and think of you as mine ... I long for only one thing in heaven or earth or under the earth, to meet you, my own dear! Come to me - come to me, and save me from what threatens me!When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy DUrberv...

The Penguin English Library Edition of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas HardyI cannot allow any man to - to criticise my private conduct! she exclaimed. Nor will I for a minuteHardys powerful novel of swift sexual passion and slow-burning loyalty centres on Bathsheba Everdene, a proud working woman whose life is complicated by three different men - respectable farmer Boldwood, seductive Sergeant Troy and devoted Gabriel - making her the object of scandal and betrayal. Vividly portraying the ...

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story.David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

Classics, modern fiction, non-fiction and more. Written for secondary and adult students the Oxford Bookworms Library has seven reading levels from A1-C1 of the CEFR.A woman and a man... words of love whispered on a summer night. Later, there is a child, but no wedding-ring. And then the man leaves the first woman, finds a younger woman, marries her... Its an old story. Yes, its an old, old story. It happens all the time - today, tomorrow, ahundred years ago. People dont change. But this story, ...

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story.David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story.David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of story.David R. Hill, Director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Grace Melbury, the only daughter of a timber-merchant, arrives home in Little Hintock after an expensive education and her father looks to find a husband for her. There are two rivals for her hand: Giles Winterborne, a good-hearted yeoman and her childhood sweetheart, and Edred Fitzpiers, an ambitious young doctor of good family. Fitzpiers wins her, but the mismatch brings unhappiness not just to the young c...