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The Withered Arm Level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library

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A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded readers. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett

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 . . . It's an old story.

Yes, it's an old, old story. It happens all the time -- today, tomorrow, a hundred years ago. People don't change. But this story, set among the green hills of southern England, has something different about it. Perhaps it is only a dream, or perhaps it is magic -- a kind of strange dark magic that begins in the world of dreams and phantoms . . .

63 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1888

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About the author

Jennifer Bassett

328 books67 followers
Jennifer Bassett has been a teacher, teacher trainer, editor, and materials writer, and has taught in England, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. She is the Series Editor of the Oxford Bookworms Library, and has written more than twenty original and retold stories for the series, including The Phantom of the Opera, One-Way Ticket, The President's Murderer, and William Shakespeare. Two of her adaptations, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Love Among the Haystacks, have won Language Learner Literature Awards, and three of her other titles have been finalists for the Awards. She has created a new sub-series called Bookworms World Stories, which are collections of short stories written in English from around the world. She has also written original stories for the English Today Readers and Storylines series. Jennifer is series co-adviser, with H.G. Widdowson, of the Oxford Bookworms Collection, volumes of unadapted short stories for advanced learners.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 139 reviews
Profile Image for Saman.
338 reviews173 followers
August 9, 2025
تجربه جالبی بود. اولین اثری بود که از هاردی می‌خوندم. اون بعد مرموز بودن ماجرا واسم نسبت به سایر ابعاد مثل ترسناک بودن، ملموس‌تر بود. ورود یک عروس جوان و زیبا دست خوش اتفاقات عجیبی میشه برای خود اون عروس.حالا تازه عروس قصه، با مشکلی که در دستش پدید اومده باید دنبال راه حلی بگرده. بعد از ناامید شدن از دکترها اون به سراغ جادوگری میره تا راه حلی برای دستش پیدا کنه و جادوگر توصیه عجیبی به او می‌کنه. او تصمیم به اجرای پیشنهاد جادوگر می‌کنه.در ادامه داستان مشخص میشه که در نهایت چه می‌کنه و دچار چه سرانجامی میشه..

اون اتفاقی که برای دست تازه عروس می‌افته، اون بعد جادویی قصه است و داستان رو از حالت واقع گرایانه ابتدایی خودش خارج می‌کنه.در واقع حسادت . همسر سابق آقای لاج به نوعروس، باعث این مشکل میشه. ورود نوعروس به داستان خیلی خوب بود.از این جهت که فضاسازی خیلی خوبی انجام داده بود و چند روزی بود حس کنجکاوی و فوضولی اهالی روستا رو برانگیخته بود. من مخاطب کاملا این آمادگی رو داشتم ورود این نوعروس قرار هست اتفاقات جدید و احتمالا عجیبی رو رقم بزنه. در ادامه داستان هم این مرموز بودن و تلاش برای حل مشکلی که نوعروس داشت، به جا بود و مخاطب رو همراه می‌کرد.پایان داستان در واقع نقطه تلاقی جدیدی است بین شخصیت‌های فعال در داستان.نقطه تلاقی که غم نسبتا زیادی داره. با غم داستان مشکلی نداشتم ولی با فرآیندی که در انتها اتفاق افتاد،کمی مشکل داشتم .
Profile Image for Beverly.
951 reviews467 followers
March 4, 2024
Much like most of Thomas Hardy's stories, the good suffer more than the bad, but no one wins in The Withered Arm. It kept me riveted from the start. He knew the ways of the landed gentry with their hypocrisy and sham facades of decency. A wealthy farmer decides to take a wife. He doesn't acknowledge his grown son by a local milkmaid and let's them suffer poverty and degradation. He brings home a young pretty girl who gradually sickens with a strange deformity. In trying to cure it, another abominable act is carried out.
Profile Image for Peter.
4,081 reviews808 followers
March 31, 2019
A rich milk farmer marries a beautiful young woman named Gertrude. Rhoda Brooks, a milkmaid with a son is envious and touches in her dream the arm of the newly wed wife. It begins to wither away. Is there a solution for Gertrude? Can a conjurer help her when all official physicians fail? What is the uncanny remedy the conjurer recommends Gertrude? What happened to Rhoda's son. A classically composed novella with a fine twist at the end. You won't regret reading this classic and shocking tale. It a pageturning story with two women as main characters. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Connie  G.
2,149 reviews713 followers
August 1, 2023
Supernatural events lead to a farmer's wife developing a withered arm. A conjurer tells her the cure for her affliction - which takes the story into horror territory. Thomas Hardy included superstitions, folk customs, and a look at social injustice in early 19th Century England in "The Withered Arm" and the other stories in his first story collection, "Wessex Tales."
Profile Image for Amir hossein .M.
122 reviews6 followers
August 25, 2025
داستانی کوتاه با ژانری معمایی و گوتیک‌ با پایانی به نسبت غافل‌گیر کننده.
ارزش یکبار خواندن را داشت !!

داستان درباره مزرعه دار بزرگی به نام لاج است که همسر سابق خود را همراه با پسرش رها می‌کند و همسری زیبا را به خدمت می‌گیرد که پس از مدتی دستش دچار بیماری و زشتی می‌شود. سپس ارتباطی بین همسر سابق و جدید لاج شکل می‌گیرد و همسر سابق لاج که خواب عجیبی دیده بود به ارتباط بین خوابش و دست بیمار زن جوان پی می‌برد و ...
Profile Image for Steffi.
1,123 reviews272 followers
July 6, 2025
Die Geschichte um einen (hier unwillentlich erfolgten) bösen Zauber und dessen angestrebte Heilung, die aber schicksalshaft alle Protagonisten zusammenführt, ist sicher ähnlich dem, was man schon häufiger gelesen hat. Doch Thomas Hardys Stil hebt die Geschichte über Mittelmaß hinaus.

In diesem Fall etwas langatmig erschien mir das Nachwort, das recht ausführlich auf Hardys Leben, Werk und imaginäre Wessex-Landschaft zu sprechen kommt, bevor es dann sehr knapp um die vorliegende Geschichte geht.
Profile Image for Carme.
450 reviews68 followers
October 9, 2020
De haber sido una novela y no un relato, tal vez hubiera salido mejor. Thomas Hardy nos dibuja, como viene siendo costumbre en su obra, una tragedia rozando en lo bizarro, donde dos mujeres terminan por ser la perdición de la contraria. Lo gracioso, o no tanto, es que todo empieza por un hombre. Por su amor, más bien; y es que ese granjero próspero deja a su primera mujer para irse con una mucho más joven. Una chica preciosa, encantadora, que termina metida de lleno en lo que sólo podría describirse como una situación harto rara.
Me gusta el halo de brujería que rodea el libro, ese no ha sido el problema. Lo que ha hecho que no pueda disfrutar la historia, o no demasiado, ha sido el hecho de que todo pase tan deprisa, casi a marchas forzadas. Un maldito sprint por llegar a un final más que previsible. Y es triste, porque daba para algo jodidamente siniestro... pero no pudo ser.
Si me paro a pensarlo, me ha dado rabia. Mucha. Muchísima. Gertrude tiene como único propósito en esta vida que su marido vuelva a quererla. Y es triste, joder, porque toda la caída en desgracia gira entorno a ese afán por recuperar algo que era tan efímero como lo es la juventud. Porque ahí radica, realmente, el problema: Gertrude "se hace mayor" y a su señor(o) marido deja de parecerle interesante. Tres cuartos de lo mismo para su primera mujer. Un tipo encantador, ¿eh?
Os recomiendo el relato si queréis algo ameno para pasar menos de una hora entretenidas y entretenidos.
Profile Image for Magrat Ajostiernos.
729 reviews4,913 followers
June 1, 2016
Hardy ha vuelto a sorprenderme con una novela corta muy tenebrosa con retazos de fantasía oscura de por medio.
Las ilustraciones de Julia Sardá simplemente PERFECTAS
Profile Image for مِستر کثافت درونگرا .
250 reviews49 followers
August 14, 2025
کتاب خوبی بود ولی نمیدونم این نوع ترجمه و استفاده از کلمات انشالله و ضرب المثل بازاری ایرونی به چه درد میخوره، آیا باعث مملوس شدن قلم نویسنده با زندگی ما میشه، نمیدونم!!
Profile Image for Negin Hdzdh.
85 reviews50 followers
April 4, 2020
اول کتاب داستان خیلی جذاب شروع شد، مهره های داستان خیلی هوشمندانه کنار هم چیده شده بودند و یک روایت کاملا جادو جنبلی رو خیلی خواندنی پیش برد اما هرچی کتاب جلو رفت ضعیفتر شد و در نهایت انگار که نویسنده کم آورده باشه یک پایان بسیار لوس و قابل پیش بینی پیدا کرد، اگر در نیمه کتاب داستان رو بی پایان رها می‌کرد به مراتب جذاب تر بود🤷‍♀️
Profile Image for Bob.
741 reviews59 followers
July 28, 2020
Thomas Hardy has become one of my favorite authors. While this story was a little different from his other works, it is well written. If I have any complaint, it would be that the character who suffered the most was innocent of any wrong doing. Realism, the good don't always win.
Profile Image for Bren.
975 reviews149 followers
March 15, 2019
Un relato gótico bastante bueno, realmente sorprendente, sobre todo el final.

Tom Hardy logra plasmar a la perfección la personalidad de dos mujeres que no pueden ser más diferentes y que, sin embargo, bien podrían ser amigas, pero circunstancias ajenas a ellas las deja en una situación bastante complicada.

Me ha llamado mucho la atención como Hardy toca un tema, que al menos en mi país es bastante común para algunas personas, no había visto jamás lo de una lectura de un huevo (hablando de brujería) fuera de mi México, sin duda las creencias en estas cosas, por lo visto se da en muchas partes.

Tanto Gertrude como Rhoda me han parecido personajes realmente increíbles, creo que ninguna de las dos se merecía lo que les ha sucedido.

Un relato lleno de envidias, brujerías, mal de ojo, brujos y remedios extraños a males extraños. Muy recomendable
Profile Image for Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive).
2,497 reviews57 followers
July 28, 2020
3.5 Stars

The Withered Arm was a nice addition to the Little Black Classics collection. It has a bit of that late 19th Century feel to it with a story of a new bride who gets cursed through one of her dreams. It was an interesting story.

The only thing I had previously read by Thomas Hardy was Woman Much Missed, a collection of poetry also from the Little Black Classics. Since I enjoyed both, I will have to look up some of his longer work, I think.

~Little Black Classics #99~

Find this and other reviews on https://urlphantomhive.wordpress.com
Profile Image for Niyousha.
629 reviews74 followers
March 16, 2025
دومین کتاب تامس هاردی بود که میخوندم.
از خیلی جهات شبیه کتاب تس بود که همشون روستایی بودند و با گاوها و اینها سر میکردند ولی خوب خیلی متفاوت بود. ایده داستان جالب بود و پیچشهایی هم که میزد آدمو شگفت زده میکرد. ولی آخرش بازم مثل کتاب تس بد تموم شد. البته نه به بدی اون. تس به من شوک روحی وارد کرد. اینکه یه ذره ملوتر بود. البته شاید چون کوتاه بود و توی یه نشست خوندن تاثیرش زیاد نبود.
Profile Image for JK.
908 reviews63 followers
June 18, 2019
The Withered Arm came highly recommended to me, and I was pleased Penguin included it in their Little Black Classics range. Although the range does contain some of his poetry (and we all know how I feel about poetry), the collection would not be complete without some Hardy prose.

He’s a firm favourite of mine, and I was delighted to see his regular style applied here. Although the supernatural isn’t something he would normally delve into, we’re presented with some typically Hardyish awkward relationships, social satire, a lyrical rustic landscape setting, and a running thread of bleak unease. The ending, of course, is tragic and terrible, as is his wont to inflict.

Detailing a spurned lover’s accidental curse on her beloved’s new wife, Hardy skilfully portrays the development and sudden downfall of the relationships. His depiction of the wife’s vicious determination to rid herself of the curse creates an unholy level of tension, with her eventual discovery of the origin then rendering the situation unbearably palpable. Her eventual choice of remedy, and consequences thereof, only Hardy could employ with this level of mastery.

It raised questions about morality, friendship, and reaping what you sow. Hardy seemed to punish every single character here, and, flawed as they were, it felt as though the higher hand of judgement had reached a reasonable verdict.

This is one which will stay with me for a very long time.
Profile Image for Laura.
7,134 reviews607 followers
June 24, 2018
From BBC radio 4 Extra - Afternnon Drama:
Thomas Hardy's classic short story is a masterful drama of psychological suspense. Dramatised by Louise Doughty, it tells the highly charged tale of two women in the grip of passions beyond their control.

With Victoria Hamilton, Susan Jameson, Ewan Bailey, Nick Sayce.

Directed by Claudine Toutoungi.


Thomas Hardy's classic short story is a masterful drama of psychological suspense. Dramatised by Louise Doughty, it tells the highly charged tale of two women in the grip of passions beyond their control.

With Victoria Hamilton, Susan Jameson, Ewan Bailey, Nick Sayce.

Directed by Claudine Toutoungi.

Thomas Hardy's classic short story is a masterful drama of psychological suspense. Dramatised by Louise Doughty, it tells the highly charged tale of two women in the grip of passions beyond their control.

With Victoria Hamilton, Susan Jameson, Ewan Bailey, Nick Sayce.

Directed by Claudine Toutoungi.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007...
Profile Image for Julie Chamaa.
125 reviews7 followers
February 23, 2024
This is an irresistible novella, more of a short story, by Thomas Hardy - master of tragic realism. In this text the material also delves into the world of the supernatural, practices of witchcraft and the pagan folklore of a bucolic 19th century community that gives the tale an eerie quality, full of foreboding. In contrast, the title is a biblical allegory and in this story one might perceive the withered arm to be representative of powerlessness and deprivation of fruitfulness, a punishment upon humanity.

Of course, in true Hardy style the beautiful, young, heroine Gertrude is burdened with the withered arm and suffers through no fault of her own. Her alter ego Rhoda, the wronged, long suffering milk-maid bitterly feels her own predicament and that of her illegitimate son, while reserving resentment for Gertrude rather than levelling her disdain at the man who has wronged her. There is a twist at the end that some might easily predict. While this may sound melodramatic to modern readers, these two characters seem to be a precursor to the magnificent creation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which followed in 1891.

Highly recommended for Hardy fans.
Profile Image for Fátima Embark.
Author 21 books154 followers
June 26, 2022
Tras acabar de leer 'Tess de los d'Urberville', me quedé con ganas de seguir leyendo a Hardy y este cuento ilustrado fue el elegido. 

Y he de decir que regresar a Hardy fue como volver a casa. Me maravilla su narración. Las descripciones de la naturaleza son tan nítidas que puedes sentir la brisa, el olor a hierba fresca, a tierra, el sudor penetrante de los animales. Así como también se palpa la misma naturaleza humana: la tristeza, el miedo, el rencor. Es delicioso leerlo.  

'El brazo marchito' es un cuento oscuro, macabro, y el autor te lleva de la mano por el día a día de los personajes con una nitidez apabullante. 

La historia comienza en un pequeño pueblo de la Inglaterra rural del siglo XIX, con el casamiento del granjero Lodge con Gertrude, una joven inocente y dulce que llega al lugar sin conocer los secretos del lugar, ni la existencia de Rhoda, una mujer que trabaja en la granja, y del hijo de esta. De aspecto afilado y hosco, Rhoda se mantiene serena y alejada, pero las gentes del pueblo murmuran. 

Es como una clásica novelita gótica, con sus personajes oscuros y descripciones tenebrosas cargadas de sutileza, todo aderezado con ese toque trágico que parecer ser sello del autor. Además, las ilustraciones de Júlia Sardá son el complemento perfecto, aumentando la sensación de aprensión y desasosiego. Una maravilla. 

Creo que esta edición es difícil de conseguir, pero tenéis el relato en otras ediciones como Penguin o Valdemar.

Me declaro fan de Hardy y pienso leer más obras suyas este año, sin duda. 
Profile Image for lucia.
154 reviews1 follower
December 26, 2024
Ojalá ser tan guapa como para que una bruja te eche una maldición.
Profile Image for Lucía Medina.
27 reviews
December 20, 2025
women’s rivalry with a touch of darkness and witchcraft, I love Victorian literature
Profile Image for Maud.
771 reviews189 followers
March 20, 2017
Two very good and fun stories, both interesting but nothing too original.
Profile Image for Wiebke (1book1review).
1,155 reviews486 followers
May 31, 2018
My first Thomas Hardy, I like the writing and the stories were quite clever.
Profile Image for Maru.
719 reviews13 followers
October 14, 2024
Un granjero contrae matrimonio con una joven mujer, los rumores comienzan a circular incluso antes de su llegada al lugar, convirtiéndose en la comidilla para algunos de sus trabajadores y provocando recelos en otros

Una breve historia que muestra como la envidia y los sentimientos negativos hacia otras personas pueden llegar a traspasar los límites de lo desconocido llegando a tener consecuencias nefastas

Ambientado en un entorno rural que transporta más allá de las propias descripciones, las sensaciones e impresiones de los personajes son notorias y mantiene unos toques paranormales que terminan de acentuar una atmósfera sombría e inquietante

Destaco la prosa ligera y cercana del autor junto con una ambientación lúgubre y fría que me ha envuelto totalmente y a pesar de que algunas cosas se intuyen en mi caso también disparó mi imaginación hacia otras teorías que quizá podrían hacer una nueva versión de "el brazo marchito"
Displaying 1 - 30 of 139 reviews

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