The Dynasts: Part Two

by Thomas Hardy

The Dynasts is "an epic-drama of the war with Napoleon, in three parts, nineteen acts and one hundred and thirty scenes" by Thomas Hardy, whose parts were published in 1904, 1906 and 1908 respectively. The action is impossible to present on stage due to its elaborate battle-scenes and it is therefore usually counted as a closet drama. By the English novelist, short story writer, and poet who was awarded the Order of Merit in 1910.

Genres: Poetry

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Thomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain.

The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. In the novel, Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff staring into the stony eyes of a trilobite embedded in the rock that has been dead for millions of years. This became the archetypal — and literal — cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the excellence of Part 1, this was disappointing. There are fewer great scenes, despite the 100p+ greater length of part 2. One problem is that Hardy expected his readers to know the history of the Napoleonic wars in detail. This was probably not unreasonable at the time of publication, but how many native English speakers could honestly claim to know the political and military history of the early 1800s now?

By the end of this volume the famous 1812 Campaign against Russia is impending and I am hoping that, since I know roughly what happened that year, part 3 will be easier to understand and that it will show more of the flair in evidence in part 1.