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Desperate Remedies
Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Hardy's first published novel, "Desperate Remedies", and in it he draws blithely on the 'sensation novel' perfected by Wilkie Collins. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when "Desperate Remedies" appeared anonymously in 1871. In its depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius.
Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.
Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.
447 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1871
210 people are currently reading
4951 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Hardy
2,313 books6,774 followersThomas 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 329 reviews
December 28, 2025
Until I came across, Desperate Remedies, I wasn't aware that Thomas Hardy wrote sensation novels. I have read only a few Hardy novels, and cannot vouch for whether he wrote more in the genre, but Desperate Remedies is certainly a "sensation novel". And what's amazing is that this was Hardy's first published novel. So, what made him choose this genre for his first published novel? My guess is the popularity of the genre, and the fact that his very first novel was flatly turned down by the publishers. I don't blame him. If I were in his shoes, I'd have gone with the tide as well.
Leaving the genre aside, Desperate Remedies brings to the literary world an author who would keep a name for centuries to come. Being his first publication, the novel doesn't equal in quality of his later works. But it demonstrates his potential as a great writer that he was later to become.
What I have always enjoyed in Hardy is his beautiful, poetic writing. Being a poet in his soul and architect by profession (before he became a full-time writer), his words creates images and sounds, paint pictures, and capture the beauty of nature. In short, his writing of place is atmospheric. Hardy has the ability to take the readers to the very core of his setting through his words, making them part of the story. It's amazing that even from his very start he had demonstrated a great skill in atmospheric writing. Hardy was indeed a born wordsmith.
As was already mentioned, Desperate Remedies is a sensation novel. The story excites you, shocks you, and moves you with its secrets, mystery, crime, sin, and melodrama. It has its flaws as the first major product of the author; nevertheless, it takes the reader through a memorable journey. The story has heroes and villains like any sensation story. However, the line was hard to draw when it came to villains because Hardy calls for the reader's sympathy for their actions.
Hardy has an amazing ability to choose his characters well and place them appropriately in his stories. I have seldom come across characters in his novels that I have disliked. It was the same in Desperate Remedies. I liked the characters, even the villains. I felt that Hardy has presented his villains more strongly than his heroes. Presenting a worthy opponent has always been characteristic in Hardy novels.
The story is dark and eerie. Yet it was steered towards a happy ending which was quite pleasant. It had some inconsistencies, and some of the mysterious incidents were unexplained. Nevertheless, the story was enjoyable. Although the start was slow and it took time to absorb all the information, the story gradually picked up the pace and became a real page-turner.
Desperate Remedies is a lesser-known work of Thomas Hardy. For those who have read his later works, his writing here may feel amateurish. Yet, after reading and enjoying it for its own merits, I feel that the novel is worthy of the reader's attention.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
Leaving the genre aside, Desperate Remedies brings to the literary world an author who would keep a name for centuries to come. Being his first publication, the novel doesn't equal in quality of his later works. But it demonstrates his potential as a great writer that he was later to become.
What I have always enjoyed in Hardy is his beautiful, poetic writing. Being a poet in his soul and architect by profession (before he became a full-time writer), his words creates images and sounds, paint pictures, and capture the beauty of nature. In short, his writing of place is atmospheric. Hardy has the ability to take the readers to the very core of his setting through his words, making them part of the story. It's amazing that even from his very start he had demonstrated a great skill in atmospheric writing. Hardy was indeed a born wordsmith.
As was already mentioned, Desperate Remedies is a sensation novel. The story excites you, shocks you, and moves you with its secrets, mystery, crime, sin, and melodrama. It has its flaws as the first major product of the author; nevertheless, it takes the reader through a memorable journey. The story has heroes and villains like any sensation story. However, the line was hard to draw when it came to villains because Hardy calls for the reader's sympathy for their actions.
Hardy has an amazing ability to choose his characters well and place them appropriately in his stories. I have seldom come across characters in his novels that I have disliked. It was the same in Desperate Remedies. I liked the characters, even the villains. I felt that Hardy has presented his villains more strongly than his heroes. Presenting a worthy opponent has always been characteristic in Hardy novels.
The story is dark and eerie. Yet it was steered towards a happy ending which was quite pleasant. It had some inconsistencies, and some of the mysterious incidents were unexplained. Nevertheless, the story was enjoyable. Although the start was slow and it took time to absorb all the information, the story gradually picked up the pace and became a real page-turner.
Desperate Remedies is a lesser-known work of Thomas Hardy. For those who have read his later works, his writing here may feel amateurish. Yet, after reading and enjoying it for its own merits, I feel that the novel is worthy of the reader's attention.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
October 16, 2016
A brilliant, brilliant read - Hardy's usual strong characterisation and emotional impact, along with a wonderfully paced dramatic mystery. Great fun, powerful, so well written, with a wonderful cast. I flew through this, and it's currently rivalling Far From the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure for my favourite Hardy.
February 16, 2016
As a lover of literary curiosities, how was I going to resist the spectacle of a young Thomas Hardy attempting a Wilkie Collins-style “sensation novel”? The idea is both incongruous and weirdly enticing; and the reality doesn’t fall too far short.
That’s not to say that Desperate Remedies—Hardy’s first published novel (1871)—could entirely be called a success. The crime-detective element is distinctly half-baked, and Hardy is clearly just going through the motions on the level of plot. There is some beautiful writing in this novel, however; and some intriguingly off-beat characterization. It’s interesting to read as a prelude to his later, classic novels, but it’s also worthwhile in itself.
Several themes that will recur in later Hardy novels may already be found here. Like Collins, Hardy is very interested in women who find themselves on the wrong side of Victorian sexual morality; and there are some striking female characters in this novel. The passionate, domineering Miss Aldclyffe was a figure unlike any other I have encountered in Victorian fiction; and it’s hard not to be struck by the extraordinary scene/s of same-sex attraction she triggers. I also liked the minor character of Anne Seaway, portrayed with considerable sympathy, despite her clearly “fallen” status. The novel’s protagonist, Cytherea Graye, also has her moments, and is far from a stereotypical virtuous love interest.
Where the male figures are concerned, I have to tip my hat—or twirl my virtual moustache—to the sinister and sexually equivocal Aeneas Manston, who arrives in the novel half-way through, full of fine villainish promise. (There’s a fabulous scene where he attempts to seduce Cytherea during a storm—Hardy works his Virgilian subtext quite hard—by means of a sexy organ solo.)
Manston never quite lives up to his potential, in my view, although he does get a farewell speech to die for (I am now about to pass into my normal condition …) Cytherea also gets a very good speech, earlier, as she is about to be sacrificed on the altar of social propriety:
Perhaps, in time far to come, when I am dead and gone … they will pause for an instant and give a sigh to me and think ‘Poor girl’, believing that they do great justice to my memory by this. But they will never, never realize that it was my single opportunity of existence; … they will not feel that what to them is merely a thought, easily held in those two words of pity, ‘Poor girl’, was a whole life to me; as full of hours, minutes, and peculiar minutes, of hopes and dreads, smiles, whisperings, tears, as theirs; that it was my world, what is to them their world, and they in that life of mine, however much I cared for them, only as the thought I seem to them to be. Nobody can enter into another’s nature truly; that is what is so grievous.
To which passionate existential outpouring, Cytherea’s brother Owen replies flatly, “Well, it cannot be helped.” I like this realism in Desperate Remedies, cutting against some of its more Gothic and melodramatic tendencies. As you would expect from Hardy, the sights and sounds of the novel’s rural setting are supremely well evoked.
If anyone is tempted to try this novel, it may help you to know that the first half is greatly superior to the second (in my view, anyway.) Half-way through, I felt I was reading a lost masterpiece, but, by the end, I had toned down my judgment a little. If you start with the right expectations, you are less likely to be disappointed along the way.
That’s not to say that Desperate Remedies—Hardy’s first published novel (1871)—could entirely be called a success. The crime-detective element is distinctly half-baked, and Hardy is clearly just going through the motions on the level of plot. There is some beautiful writing in this novel, however; and some intriguingly off-beat characterization. It’s interesting to read as a prelude to his later, classic novels, but it’s also worthwhile in itself.
Several themes that will recur in later Hardy novels may already be found here. Like Collins, Hardy is very interested in women who find themselves on the wrong side of Victorian sexual morality; and there are some striking female characters in this novel. The passionate, domineering Miss Aldclyffe was a figure unlike any other I have encountered in Victorian fiction; and it’s hard not to be struck by the extraordinary scene/s of same-sex attraction she triggers. I also liked the minor character of Anne Seaway, portrayed with considerable sympathy, despite her clearly “fallen” status. The novel’s protagonist, Cytherea Graye, also has her moments, and is far from a stereotypical virtuous love interest.
Where the male figures are concerned, I have to tip my hat—or twirl my virtual moustache—to the sinister and sexually equivocal Aeneas Manston, who arrives in the novel half-way through, full of fine villainish promise. (There’s a fabulous scene where he attempts to seduce Cytherea during a storm—Hardy works his Virgilian subtext quite hard—by means of a sexy organ solo.)
Manston never quite lives up to his potential, in my view, although he does get a farewell speech to die for (I am now about to pass into my normal condition …) Cytherea also gets a very good speech, earlier, as she is about to be sacrificed on the altar of social propriety:
Perhaps, in time far to come, when I am dead and gone … they will pause for an instant and give a sigh to me and think ‘Poor girl’, believing that they do great justice to my memory by this. But they will never, never realize that it was my single opportunity of existence; … they will not feel that what to them is merely a thought, easily held in those two words of pity, ‘Poor girl’, was a whole life to me; as full of hours, minutes, and peculiar minutes, of hopes and dreads, smiles, whisperings, tears, as theirs; that it was my world, what is to them their world, and they in that life of mine, however much I cared for them, only as the thought I seem to them to be. Nobody can enter into another’s nature truly; that is what is so grievous.
To which passionate existential outpouring, Cytherea’s brother Owen replies flatly, “Well, it cannot be helped.” I like this realism in Desperate Remedies, cutting against some of its more Gothic and melodramatic tendencies. As you would expect from Hardy, the sights and sounds of the novel’s rural setting are supremely well evoked.
If anyone is tempted to try this novel, it may help you to know that the first half is greatly superior to the second (in my view, anyway.) Half-way through, I felt I was reading a lost masterpiece, but, by the end, I had toned down my judgment a little. If you start with the right expectations, you are less likely to be disappointed along the way.
February 12, 2021
3.5 stars, rounded down. Still a very well written novel.
Desperate Remedies was Thomas Hardy’s first published novel, and while failing to live up to his later works, it foreshadows the brilliant author he would come to be. In a Thomas Hardy channels Wilkie Collins fashion, this novel is a bit of a mystery novel, and lacks the depth of idea development that makes Hardy one of my favorite authors. By three-quarters of the way through, I had guessed at most of the riddles that had been set for us and had a clear idea of exactly where the plot was going.
You might think this would have made the reading less enjoyable, but I find Hardy’s remarkable character development and descriptions are fascinating, even in a lesser work. He can describe an activity, in this novel it was cider pressing, with such amazing detail, that you can picture vividly the men at work and thrill with understanding the mechanics of a skill that is literally now lost in time.
Thrust into poverty at the death of her father, a young girl, Cytherea, is forced to seek employment as a lady’s maid, and takes up that station with a woman who turns out to be the love of her father’s life who slipped through his fingers under strange circumstances. Cytherea is an exceptionally lovely girl, and she becomes the object of desire for two men; but her love-life proves to be anything but a simple and straight-forward affair.
There is a great deal of backroom plotting and inexplicable interference in Cytherea’s life by her lady employer, Mrs. Aldclyffe, some false information to overcome and some errors in judgment that make one cringe. The story is neatly tied at the end, no pesky strands left unresolved. From another author, this book might have garnered an extra star. In this case, the author is Thomas Hardy, and the comparison cannot help but be made with his masterpieces, in which case this book falls a tad short.
I am on a quest to read all of Hardy’s works, and I am pleased to have read this one. It was a pleasant way to ease myself back into a reading mode, something I had left behind me, out of necessity, for the last few months.
Desperate Remedies was Thomas Hardy’s first published novel, and while failing to live up to his later works, it foreshadows the brilliant author he would come to be. In a Thomas Hardy channels Wilkie Collins fashion, this novel is a bit of a mystery novel, and lacks the depth of idea development that makes Hardy one of my favorite authors. By three-quarters of the way through, I had guessed at most of the riddles that had been set for us and had a clear idea of exactly where the plot was going.
You might think this would have made the reading less enjoyable, but I find Hardy’s remarkable character development and descriptions are fascinating, even in a lesser work. He can describe an activity, in this novel it was cider pressing, with such amazing detail, that you can picture vividly the men at work and thrill with understanding the mechanics of a skill that is literally now lost in time.
Thrust into poverty at the death of her father, a young girl, Cytherea, is forced to seek employment as a lady’s maid, and takes up that station with a woman who turns out to be the love of her father’s life who slipped through his fingers under strange circumstances. Cytherea is an exceptionally lovely girl, and she becomes the object of desire for two men; but her love-life proves to be anything but a simple and straight-forward affair.
There is a great deal of backroom plotting and inexplicable interference in Cytherea’s life by her lady employer, Mrs. Aldclyffe, some false information to overcome and some errors in judgment that make one cringe. The story is neatly tied at the end, no pesky strands left unresolved. From another author, this book might have garnered an extra star. In this case, the author is Thomas Hardy, and the comparison cannot help but be made with his masterpieces, in which case this book falls a tad short.
I am on a quest to read all of Hardy’s works, and I am pleased to have read this one. It was a pleasant way to ease myself back into a reading mode, something I had left behind me, out of necessity, for the last few months.
April 5, 2021
This was like a reality show or a soap opera, victorian style and it was quite the fun time to read. It was entertaining even though I struggled a bit with the language as I didn't feel it flow smoothly for me. But that is a me thing as English isn't my first language. But in the end it was worth it.
March 14, 2019
Me ha encantado, no le falta de nada a este libro, aunque si que es verdad que uno de los secretos de los protagonistas lo ví venir desde casi el principio, por eso le puse 4 en vez de 5 estrellas 😁
June 14, 2017
The idea of re-reading Thomas Hardy's work in order of publication floated in my head for quite some time; and now that I have made a start and re-visited his first published novel I think that it was a rather good idea.
'Desperate Remedies' isn't his finest work but it is a good start, and a very readable story. Hardy wrote another novel before this one, but after it was rejected and now it is lost. He took advice; and it resulted in a book that is a curious mixture of Hardy and of certain other novelists who had found success some years before he did.
Cytheria Graye was named after her father's great lost love; a young woman who had, quite explicably, sent him away and broke his heart. He built a career as an architect, some years later he married, and when his wife died he raised their two children, Cytheria and Owen, alone. He was a good man, but he made some poor decisions and he trusted some people who were not worthy of that trust, and when he died his children found that they had nothing.
They made plans together. Owen would continue his training to become and architect, and his sister would go into service, just until his training was complete and he could support the household. Cytheria was beautiful, she was accomplished, and they thought that she would find a position easily. She didn't, and she had to lower her sights time and time again.
Cytheria was downhearted, because she had fallen in love with her brother's friend, Edward Springrove; and he had fallen in love with her.
One day, unexpectedly and inexplicably, Cytheria was offered a position much grander than she dared to hope for.
She became lady's maid to the mercurial Miss Aldclyffe. She could be terribly imperious, but it was clear that she desperately want to be a mother to the girl, and and bring her up to be strong and not to be dependent on any man. There were definitely echoes of Miss Havisham ....
When Cytheria learned that her employer shared her distinctive name, she realised that she must be her father's lost love.
She realised that Miss Aldclyffe was troubled, and that she had secrets she was determined to keep.
She couldn't understand why Miss Aldclyffe went to such lengths to secure a man named Aeneas Manston as her steward. Edward Springrove had applied, he was well qualified, he was a local man, and he had the support if the lady's solicitor; but Miss Aldclyffe disregarded that and insisted that she would have Manston, even though her solicitor told her that he was "a scoundrel of the first order"....
Miss Aldclyffe tried to plant doubts about Edward in Cyrethia's mind; and to encourage a match with Manston. Cyrethia disliked Manston and was resolute in her love for Edward; but when his family faced a crisis and Owen was taken ill she found herself alone and trapped ....
The story starts slowly but it accelerates and turns into a wonderful, page-turning sensation novel. There are wonderful twists and turns, there is much more to the plot than I have set out, and there were questions in my mind right to the end.
There is a little too much melodrama; but not so much that it spoils the story.
This may sound more like Wilkie Collins than Thomas Hardy - and yes, it is - but there is so much in this book that is Hardy. The descriptions are lyrical, country life is portrayed with real understanding, the set pieces are beautifully handled, and I saw themes and ideas in this book that he would develop in later works.
Aeneas Manston was a magnificent villain, Edward Seagrove was a reliable, if slightly dull, hero, and Owen Graye had an interesting part to play.
Cyrethia was a little unpredictable - sometimes brave and sometimes just the opposite - but I found it easy to like her, I could always empathise with her, and she carried me through the story. Hardy would go on to create stronger, more complex heroines, but Cyrethia was the right heroine for this book.
I loved the story arc of Miss Aldclyffe. I didn't remember it and I didn't work it out, because I was far too caught up with the story to stop and think.
Thomas Hardy wrote a good sensation novel; and it was lovely to read that story mixed with the things that Hardy did so well. That made it feel familiar and yet unlike any other book I've read. I'm glad though that he didn't continue down that route, and that he went on to do the other things he began to do well in this book even better as his writing career progressed.
'Desperate Remedies' isn't his finest work but it is a good start, and a very readable story. Hardy wrote another novel before this one, but after it was rejected and now it is lost. He took advice; and it resulted in a book that is a curious mixture of Hardy and of certain other novelists who had found success some years before he did.
Cytheria Graye was named after her father's great lost love; a young woman who had, quite explicably, sent him away and broke his heart. He built a career as an architect, some years later he married, and when his wife died he raised their two children, Cytheria and Owen, alone. He was a good man, but he made some poor decisions and he trusted some people who were not worthy of that trust, and when he died his children found that they had nothing.
They made plans together. Owen would continue his training to become and architect, and his sister would go into service, just until his training was complete and he could support the household. Cytheria was beautiful, she was accomplished, and they thought that she would find a position easily. She didn't, and she had to lower her sights time and time again.
Cytheria was downhearted, because she had fallen in love with her brother's friend, Edward Springrove; and he had fallen in love with her.
One day, unexpectedly and inexplicably, Cytheria was offered a position much grander than she dared to hope for.
She became lady's maid to the mercurial Miss Aldclyffe. She could be terribly imperious, but it was clear that she desperately want to be a mother to the girl, and and bring her up to be strong and not to be dependent on any man. There were definitely echoes of Miss Havisham ....
When Cytheria learned that her employer shared her distinctive name, she realised that she must be her father's lost love.
She realised that Miss Aldclyffe was troubled, and that she had secrets she was determined to keep.
She couldn't understand why Miss Aldclyffe went to such lengths to secure a man named Aeneas Manston as her steward. Edward Springrove had applied, he was well qualified, he was a local man, and he had the support if the lady's solicitor; but Miss Aldclyffe disregarded that and insisted that she would have Manston, even though her solicitor told her that he was "a scoundrel of the first order"....
Miss Aldclyffe tried to plant doubts about Edward in Cyrethia's mind; and to encourage a match with Manston. Cyrethia disliked Manston and was resolute in her love for Edward; but when his family faced a crisis and Owen was taken ill she found herself alone and trapped ....
The story starts slowly but it accelerates and turns into a wonderful, page-turning sensation novel. There are wonderful twists and turns, there is much more to the plot than I have set out, and there were questions in my mind right to the end.
There is a little too much melodrama; but not so much that it spoils the story.
This may sound more like Wilkie Collins than Thomas Hardy - and yes, it is - but there is so much in this book that is Hardy. The descriptions are lyrical, country life is portrayed with real understanding, the set pieces are beautifully handled, and I saw themes and ideas in this book that he would develop in later works.
Aeneas Manston was a magnificent villain, Edward Seagrove was a reliable, if slightly dull, hero, and Owen Graye had an interesting part to play.
Cyrethia was a little unpredictable - sometimes brave and sometimes just the opposite - but I found it easy to like her, I could always empathise with her, and she carried me through the story. Hardy would go on to create stronger, more complex heroines, but Cyrethia was the right heroine for this book.
I loved the story arc of Miss Aldclyffe. I didn't remember it and I didn't work it out, because I was far too caught up with the story to stop and think.
Thomas Hardy wrote a good sensation novel; and it was lovely to read that story mixed with the things that Hardy did so well. That made it feel familiar and yet unlike any other book I've read. I'm glad though that he didn't continue down that route, and that he went on to do the other things he began to do well in this book even better as his writing career progressed.
August 30, 2022
Desperate Remedies probably remains among Thomas Hardy’s presently published works due to its distinction as being the first of his novels to be published. It serves as a Point “A” from which his subsequent novels can be compared. It provides a snapshot of Hardy’s early career when it seems like his enthusiasm for writing overpowered his talent for telling a good story.
Enthusiasm is probably the best way to describe Hardy’s approach to this novel. The plot is filled with literary complexity. It’s as if Hardy was eager to embellish each element of the plot with complicated twists and turns to create intrigue and fascination. The actual result, however, is mild frustration and confusion. It became difficult to follow the story as it passed through each of these tangled webs. In hardy’s later novels, this enthusiasm is more controlled and his stories feel more natural in their progression.
The actual story in Desperate Remedies is a fairly typical mystery novel. The story is told once, working its way through all of its key events while withholding relevant facts to manufacture suspense. Then, in the final chapter, Hardy tells the same story over again but he includes the relevant facts so that some sort of sense of the story can be made.
These types of mystery novels are just not my thing. I have read truly great mystery novels wherein the writer tells all that happens as it happens. Mysteries that stem from the duplicity that lives within us are far more real and engaging than those that hide key facts from their readers.
Enthusiasm is probably the best way to describe Hardy’s approach to this novel. The plot is filled with literary complexity. It’s as if Hardy was eager to embellish each element of the plot with complicated twists and turns to create intrigue and fascination. The actual result, however, is mild frustration and confusion. It became difficult to follow the story as it passed through each of these tangled webs. In hardy’s later novels, this enthusiasm is more controlled and his stories feel more natural in their progression.
The actual story in Desperate Remedies is a fairly typical mystery novel. The story is told once, working its way through all of its key events while withholding relevant facts to manufacture suspense. Then, in the final chapter, Hardy tells the same story over again but he includes the relevant facts so that some sort of sense of the story can be made.
These types of mystery novels are just not my thing. I have read truly great mystery novels wherein the writer tells all that happens as it happens. Mysteries that stem from the duplicity that lives within us are far more real and engaging than those that hide key facts from their readers.
March 9, 2020
I want to once again thank Katie at Books and Things on YouTube. She is my reading idol, because she's read every book by Thomas Hardy, Dickens, all of the Bronte sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, etc. and she's done individual videos about each of those books. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and I'm so glad. Here is a link to her channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thesilve...
Have you ever heard of this book? Me either. Thomas Hardy is one of my favorite writers and this was his first published novel. If you like Wilkie Collins, you'll enjoy this. It's a pageturner. So many twists and turns. A sensation novel!
There is a love triangle. There are mysterious disappearances. There is death and grief and people on the brink of poverty. There is unrequited love, leading people to do strange things. There is love of all kinds, familial and non. The ending is great. Don't read the blurb on the back of the book, because there is kind of a big spoiler there. I was spoiled in a review I read prior, but the book was still great, bc there were so many twists and turns I didn't see coming, in spite of that.
Basically, a brother and a sister fall on hard times when their only living parent dies in an accident. They have to make their way in the world. The sister decides to become a lady's maid and she finds a position in a grand house, and everything follows on from there.
If this cover had Wilkie Collins's name on it, I don't think very many people would question it. He's one of my favorite authors as well. You get a little bit of Hardy's wonderful landscapes in this as well as the Collins-esque twisty and turny mysteriousness. Hard to go wrong.
I listened to the audio, performed by Melody Grove, who did a fantastic job of it, and switched to/read in conjunction with the paper book at times. I hope to eventually read every one of Hardy's novels.
https://www.youtube.com/user/thesilve...
Have you ever heard of this book? Me either. Thomas Hardy is one of my favorite writers and this was his first published novel. If you like Wilkie Collins, you'll enjoy this. It's a pageturner. So many twists and turns. A sensation novel!
There is a love triangle. There are mysterious disappearances. There is death and grief and people on the brink of poverty. There is unrequited love, leading people to do strange things. There is love of all kinds, familial and non. The ending is great. Don't read the blurb on the back of the book, because there is kind of a big spoiler there. I was spoiled in a review I read prior, but the book was still great, bc there were so many twists and turns I didn't see coming, in spite of that.
Basically, a brother and a sister fall on hard times when their only living parent dies in an accident. They have to make their way in the world. The sister decides to become a lady's maid and she finds a position in a grand house, and everything follows on from there.
If this cover had Wilkie Collins's name on it, I don't think very many people would question it. He's one of my favorite authors as well. You get a little bit of Hardy's wonderful landscapes in this as well as the Collins-esque twisty and turny mysteriousness. Hard to go wrong.
I listened to the audio, performed by Melody Grove, who did a fantastic job of it, and switched to/read in conjunction with the paper book at times. I hope to eventually read every one of Hardy's novels.
October 13, 2021
Jamás me había costado tanto valorar un libro.
Y no por culpa de la maravillosa novela de Hardy, sino por culpa de la edición en castellano que ha sacado Ático de los libros: no me suelen importar los spoilers, en muchos casos hasta me gustan, pero me gustaría saber a qué persona en su sano juicio le parece normal destripar ENTERA la trama de la novela en la sinopsis de la contracubierta, revelando hechos que se van desgranando lentamente a lo largo del libro (lo primero que cuenta ya sucede a la mitad) hasta la insensatez de destripar hechos que Hardy no quería revelar hasta EL FINAL, y cuando digo el final me refiero a las últimas 40 páginas (de un libro de 479).
Realmente en este caso es la editorial la que te destroza toda la experiencia lectora, máxime en esta novela, en la que los misterios y los giros son el eje de toda la trama. Parece ser que en una edición inglesa de los años 70 del siglo pasado se cometía la misma salvajada. Supongo que los de la editorial se basaron en esa versión para la traducción... pero a mí no me parece una excusa válida, porque no tenían obligación alguna de traducir literalmente las cubiertas y contracubiertas, sólo el contenido.
A eso me refería con lo de que me ha costado valorar la novela: porque no me parecía justo ponerle la valoración que ha provocado una pésima elección editorial a la hora de traducirla al español y publicarla, pero por otro lado mi experiencia lectora no era "fresca", ya que estaba plenamente contaminada de pe a pa por culpa de la maldita sinopsis, de ahí que haya hecho un esfuerzo de pensar cómo me habría sentido al leer la novela "virgen", sin saber nada de nada.
Y, honestamente, creo que me habría encantado, porque si, pese a saber a cada paso lo que iba a suceder y tener cero sorpresas, me ha gustado muchísimo, no quiero ni pensar lo que la habría disfrutado leyéndola sin tener las certezas de lo que iba a pasar, intentando hacerme mis conjeturas y teorías. Claro que no puedo llegar a saber con toda honestidad si lo habría visto venir, si habría averiguado todos o algunos de los giros, porque esa posibilidad me fue cortada de raiz por obra y gracia de Ático de los libros. De ahí que no tenga claro si he sido del todo justa con las 4 estrellas, o si merecía más, de haber sido editada al castellano de manera adecuada.
Si a eso añadimos que encima la traducción tiene bastantes erratas a lo largo del texto, que no son garrafales, pero sí molestas, y que no es la primera vez que me pasa con un libro de esta editorial (los cuales no son baratos, precisamente), creo poder decir que será la última vez que compro un libro suyo. Por mucho que me duela, ya que tienen obras buenísimas (como las novelas de Stuart Turton), o bien algunos clásicos inéditos en castellano (como esta, o la de Anthony Trollope), pero con lo poco que cuidan y miman el producto no merece la pena.
Pero vayamos con las virtudes del libro:
Es increíble que esta fuera la primera novela de Thomas Hardy, por lo bien escrita que está. Sí que es cierto que esta obra bebe mucho de Wilkie Collins (otro escritor que está entre mis favoritos), especialmente por lo que se refiere a la trama, que es puro misterio... pero pese a esa "Wilkiecolinización" (toma palabra inventada) ya encontramos mucho de Hardy es esta primera obra: su maravilloso estilo narrativo, sus descripciones tan detalladas y costumbristas, que te hacen ve, oler y sentir lo que te describe, su ambientación rural (aunque haya escenas situadas en Londres), sus temas recurrentes (el destino, la culpa, el amor, el matrimonio y la posición de la mujer en él...) y, como no podía ser de otro modo, ya aparece por primera vez Casterbridge, aunque la acción principal no se desarrolle en él. Pura delicia de Hardy, aunque sea la novela "menos Hardy" de las que he leído de él.
Pero como los rasgos más ajenos son los de otro grande como fue Wilkie Collins, era inevitable que esta novela me gustara muchísimo.
Sí, incluso pese a los inconvenientes narrados al principio.
Y no por culpa de la maravillosa novela de Hardy, sino por culpa de la edición en castellano que ha sacado Ático de los libros: no me suelen importar los spoilers, en muchos casos hasta me gustan, pero me gustaría saber a qué persona en su sano juicio le parece normal destripar ENTERA la trama de la novela en la sinopsis de la contracubierta, revelando hechos que se van desgranando lentamente a lo largo del libro (lo primero que cuenta ya sucede a la mitad) hasta la insensatez de destripar hechos que Hardy no quería revelar hasta EL FINAL, y cuando digo el final me refiero a las últimas 40 páginas (de un libro de 479).
Realmente en este caso es la editorial la que te destroza toda la experiencia lectora, máxime en esta novela, en la que los misterios y los giros son el eje de toda la trama. Parece ser que en una edición inglesa de los años 70 del siglo pasado se cometía la misma salvajada. Supongo que los de la editorial se basaron en esa versión para la traducción... pero a mí no me parece una excusa válida, porque no tenían obligación alguna de traducir literalmente las cubiertas y contracubiertas, sólo el contenido.
A eso me refería con lo de que me ha costado valorar la novela: porque no me parecía justo ponerle la valoración que ha provocado una pésima elección editorial a la hora de traducirla al español y publicarla, pero por otro lado mi experiencia lectora no era "fresca", ya que estaba plenamente contaminada de pe a pa por culpa de la maldita sinopsis, de ahí que haya hecho un esfuerzo de pensar cómo me habría sentido al leer la novela "virgen", sin saber nada de nada.
Y, honestamente, creo que me habría encantado, porque si, pese a saber a cada paso lo que iba a suceder y tener cero sorpresas, me ha gustado muchísimo, no quiero ni pensar lo que la habría disfrutado leyéndola sin tener las certezas de lo que iba a pasar, intentando hacerme mis conjeturas y teorías. Claro que no puedo llegar a saber con toda honestidad si lo habría visto venir, si habría averiguado todos o algunos de los giros, porque esa posibilidad me fue cortada de raiz por obra y gracia de Ático de los libros. De ahí que no tenga claro si he sido del todo justa con las 4 estrellas, o si merecía más, de haber sido editada al castellano de manera adecuada.
Si a eso añadimos que encima la traducción tiene bastantes erratas a lo largo del texto, que no son garrafales, pero sí molestas, y que no es la primera vez que me pasa con un libro de esta editorial (los cuales no son baratos, precisamente), creo poder decir que será la última vez que compro un libro suyo. Por mucho que me duela, ya que tienen obras buenísimas (como las novelas de Stuart Turton), o bien algunos clásicos inéditos en castellano (como esta, o la de Anthony Trollope), pero con lo poco que cuidan y miman el producto no merece la pena.
Pero vayamos con las virtudes del libro:
Es increíble que esta fuera la primera novela de Thomas Hardy, por lo bien escrita que está. Sí que es cierto que esta obra bebe mucho de Wilkie Collins (otro escritor que está entre mis favoritos), especialmente por lo que se refiere a la trama, que es puro misterio... pero pese a esa "Wilkiecolinización" (toma palabra inventada) ya encontramos mucho de Hardy es esta primera obra: su maravilloso estilo narrativo, sus descripciones tan detalladas y costumbristas, que te hacen ve, oler y sentir lo que te describe, su ambientación rural (aunque haya escenas situadas en Londres), sus temas recurrentes (el destino, la culpa, el amor, el matrimonio y la posición de la mujer en él...) y, como no podía ser de otro modo, ya aparece por primera vez Casterbridge, aunque la acción principal no se desarrolle en él. Pura delicia de Hardy, aunque sea la novela "menos Hardy" de las que he leído de él.
Pero como los rasgos más ajenos son los de otro grande como fue Wilkie Collins, era inevitable que esta novela me gustara muchísimo.
Sí, incluso pese a los inconvenientes narrados al principio.
November 30, 2012
This is Hardy's first novel. For the first hundred pages or so it seems standard Hardy, but it quickly turns into a Wilkie Collinsesque potboiler (the Victorian "sensation novel") of not astoundingly high quality (it doesn't match The Woman in White, for instance). Unlike so much Hardy, there's a .
I wouldn't recommend this edition (Oxford World's Classics). The footnotes/endnotes will seem overly obtrusive to most readers (who doesn't know that a "pallet" is "a straw mattress or bed"?), and they also reveal every last spoiler in the novel. Patricia Ingham's introduction, aside from not being particularly interesting, reveals not only every spoiler in the novel, but most spoilers from all of Hardy's other novels too.
I wouldn't recommend this edition (Oxford World's Classics). The footnotes/endnotes will seem overly obtrusive to most readers (who doesn't know that a "pallet" is "a straw mattress or bed"?), and they also reveal every last spoiler in the novel. Patricia Ingham's introduction, aside from not being particularly interesting, reveals not only every spoiler in the novel, but most spoilers from all of Hardy's other novels too.
December 30, 2023
Desperate Remedies was Thomas Hardy's first published novel. It was published anonymously in 1871. This was my second reading. In 2013, already a huge Hardy fan, I read through all of his "lesser" novels, including Desperate Remedies. Hardy was apparently taking advantage of the public's thirst for "sensation" novels in the wake of Wilkie Collins' works, among others. I think the student of Hardy will see that he made an adjustment in the bearing of his subsequent books, and that Desperate Remedies has distinctive differences in feel including over-the-top machinations, intentionally-withheld information, and heavily Gothic-influenced situations in which sinister characters carry out heinous deeds. It's only a matter of degree however, as Hardy generally avoided the neat-and-tidy happy ending, and allowed the malevolent Hand of Fate to rule the day in his works.
With Fate ruling the day, death comes along in Desperate Remedies as it does in many of Hardy's novels. It would be an interesting graduate thesis for a literature student to look at how his representation of death throughout Hardy's career may have changed as he fell away from belief in God. Here in this very early sample, some minor characters give voice to sentiments aligned with their faith. Two farmers are watching as a cart pulls a coffin through town:
Farmer Springrove: "... there's no difference in (the) nature (of) sudden death and death of any other sort ... We only suddenly light upon an end ... which has been existen at that very same point from the beginnen, though unseen by us to be so soon."
Farmer Baker: "It is just a discovery to your own mind, and not an alteration in the Lord's."
After her father's death, 16 year-old Cytherea Graye moves with her 17 year-old brother Owen to the town of Creston, and is taken in as a lady's maid by the popular but secretive Miss Aldclyffe. She soon falls in love with young Edward Springrove, but is crushed when he tells her he cannot go on with the courtship, but will not divulge his reason. Miss Aldclyffe hires the handsome and captivating Mr. Manston to take over the land steward duties on the estate, and while he is immediately attracted to and captivates Cytherea, she remains devoted to her lost Edward. Everyone is shocked to learn that Mr. Manston has a wife in London. He explains that it's not at all unusual for stewards to report to a new position unencumbered by their wives, especially in cases when the advertisement is for an unmarried man. Soon his wife Eunice comes to join him, but Fate intervenes and he misses her at the station. Before he can return, she has checked into a local inn. That night, a smoldering waste fire on the inn property spreads and burns down the inn in minutes, and Eunice is the only occupant who did not escape. From this point on, the complexity of the story ramps up, and it's a wild ride forward. Only at the conclusion are we privy to the missing details of the story.
In each Hardy novel there is an important secret in someone's past that comes back to haunt them. I don't think there was a more trusted device common to all of his works. A quality of Hardy that I admire so much is his pace. Something important is always happening. His imagination and story-telling skills were such that there didn't need to be filler and fluff. Desperate Remedies was certainly a great vehicle for a new writer to put forward his talents and deftness to the public, albeit anonymously. I've read a number of Wilkie Collins' potboilers, and while I have enjoyed them, they didn't entertain or impress me more with the level of writing quality or cleverness than Hardy's first novel did.
With Fate ruling the day, death comes along in Desperate Remedies as it does in many of Hardy's novels. It would be an interesting graduate thesis for a literature student to look at how his representation of death throughout Hardy's career may have changed as he fell away from belief in God. Here in this very early sample, some minor characters give voice to sentiments aligned with their faith. Two farmers are watching as a cart pulls a coffin through town:
Farmer Springrove: "... there's no difference in (the) nature (of) sudden death and death of any other sort ... We only suddenly light upon an end ... which has been existen at that very same point from the beginnen, though unseen by us to be so soon."
Farmer Baker: "It is just a discovery to your own mind, and not an alteration in the Lord's."
After her father's death, 16 year-old Cytherea Graye moves with her 17 year-old brother Owen to the town of Creston, and is taken in as a lady's maid by the popular but secretive Miss Aldclyffe. She soon falls in love with young Edward Springrove, but is crushed when he tells her he cannot go on with the courtship, but will not divulge his reason. Miss Aldclyffe hires the handsome and captivating Mr. Manston to take over the land steward duties on the estate, and while he is immediately attracted to and captivates Cytherea, she remains devoted to her lost Edward. Everyone is shocked to learn that Mr. Manston has a wife in London. He explains that it's not at all unusual for stewards to report to a new position unencumbered by their wives, especially in cases when the advertisement is for an unmarried man. Soon his wife Eunice comes to join him, but Fate intervenes and he misses her at the station. Before he can return, she has checked into a local inn. That night, a smoldering waste fire on the inn property spreads and burns down the inn in minutes, and Eunice is the only occupant who did not escape. From this point on, the complexity of the story ramps up, and it's a wild ride forward. Only at the conclusion are we privy to the missing details of the story.
In each Hardy novel there is an important secret in someone's past that comes back to haunt them. I don't think there was a more trusted device common to all of his works. A quality of Hardy that I admire so much is his pace. Something important is always happening. His imagination and story-telling skills were such that there didn't need to be filler and fluff. Desperate Remedies was certainly a great vehicle for a new writer to put forward his talents and deftness to the public, albeit anonymously. I've read a number of Wilkie Collins' potboilers, and while I have enjoyed them, they didn't entertain or impress me more with the level of writing quality or cleverness than Hardy's first novel did.
January 18, 2017
There is in us an unquenchable expectation, which at the gloomiest time persists in inferring that because we are ourselves, there must be a special future in store for us, though our nature and antecedents to the remotest particular have been common to thousands.
*
But what is Wisdom really? A steady handling of any means to bring about any end necessary to happiness.
*
But what is Wisdom really? A steady handling of any means to bring about any end necessary to happiness.
November 21, 2023
Desperate Remedies is a Victorian novel that combines romance with a mysterious secret in a layered plot. It’s the story of star-crossed lovers who are entangled by manipulation and betrayal.
Orphaned and soon to be without means, Cytherea is forced to accept a position as a lady’s maid though she is unqualified. Her employer, Miss Aldclyffe, is a temperamental and difficult woman with secrets. When Cytherea learns the man, she loves is already engaged, Miss Aldclyffe encourages her to allow the land steward of the estate to court her. Cytherea’s emotions are torn between the two men and her situation is further complicated by her brother’s illness.
This is such an intriguing plot line with excellent characterization and as much as I enjoyed the story, it seemed to take me forever to finish it. Cytherea is a weak female that aggravated me even though I realize her disposition was likely authentic for the period. The pacing drags at times. For the early part of the book, on the surface, the events are boring while behind the scenes is where the manipulation and betrayal occur. It takes a while for this to work its way into the action, then finally the pace and tension ramps up. The end of the book was the best part, and I’m not even disappointed that I had most of the plot figured out.
I began by reading an eBook but switched to an audio read by Anna Bentinck. Honestly, I flipped back and forth several times before settling on the audio. As I mentioned, the early part of the book is slow paced and reading it didn’t hold my interest. However, I could only call the audio pretty good.
As a Hardy fan, I’m glad to have read Desperate Remedies. However, The Woodlanders and Far From the Madding Crowd earned a higher rating from me.
Orphaned and soon to be without means, Cytherea is forced to accept a position as a lady’s maid though she is unqualified. Her employer, Miss Aldclyffe, is a temperamental and difficult woman with secrets. When Cytherea learns the man, she loves is already engaged, Miss Aldclyffe encourages her to allow the land steward of the estate to court her. Cytherea’s emotions are torn between the two men and her situation is further complicated by her brother’s illness.
This is such an intriguing plot line with excellent characterization and as much as I enjoyed the story, it seemed to take me forever to finish it. Cytherea is a weak female that aggravated me even though I realize her disposition was likely authentic for the period. The pacing drags at times. For the early part of the book, on the surface, the events are boring while behind the scenes is where the manipulation and betrayal occur. It takes a while for this to work its way into the action, then finally the pace and tension ramps up. The end of the book was the best part, and I’m not even disappointed that I had most of the plot figured out.
I began by reading an eBook but switched to an audio read by Anna Bentinck. Honestly, I flipped back and forth several times before settling on the audio. As I mentioned, the early part of the book is slow paced and reading it didn’t hold my interest. However, I could only call the audio pretty good.
As a Hardy fan, I’m glad to have read Desperate Remedies. However, The Woodlanders and Far From the Madding Crowd earned a higher rating from me.
March 5, 2016
I have read most of Hardy's work, but had not yet tried this, his first offering. I really enjoyed it from start to finish. As the description suggests, there are hints of Wilkie Collins in the story line, but in the prose you can see glimpses of what will become Hardy's strong descriptive style. The plot itself, while indeed sensational, is gripping and I was also keen to pick the book up again each night and see what would happen next.
September 25, 2019
This book was bonkers! Practically a Victorian soap opera. Every time the plot suggested something dramatic could happen, it happened not two pages later. The plot moves from sensational development to sensational development over and over. The characters were fun, but not nuanced. The ending was cute. Loved how a couple of characters talked about death toward the end of the book. Not bad for Hardy’s first novel.
July 15, 2024
Pubblicato nel 1871, Estremi rimedi è il primo romanzo di Thomas Hardy. L'autore inglese, solo qualche anno prima, aveva già provato la via della letteratura, ma la sua prima fatica letteraria venne bocciata dagli editori; di quest'opera non n'è rimasta nessuna traccia perché Hardy, deluso, l'ha bruciata.
Estremi rimedi è quindi il primo di una lunga serie di romanzi ed è l'unico, tra le sue opere, che appartiene al genere sensation novel, molto in voga in quegli anni.
Protagonista di questo romanzo è la giovane Cytherea Graye (ancora un nome particolare per la protagonista femminile di un'opera di Hardy, come Elfride, Eustacia, Batscheba), che già orfana di madre, perde il padre in un incidente sul lavoro. Rimasti orfani e costretti dalla vergogna a causa di varie vicissitudini a lasciare il paese natio di Hocbridge, lei e il fratello Owen decidono di trasferirsi nella cittadina di Creston, dove Owen ha trovato un lavoro presso lo studio di un architetto e può, così, finire il suo tirocinio.
Qui conoscono Edward Springrove, collega di Owen, di cui Cytherea si innamora, corrisposta. Il loro però sembra un amore impossibile perché, dopo un incontro romantico, i due sono costretti a separarsi a causa degli impegni di lavoro di lui.
Dopo alcuni tentativi falliti, la giovane Cytherea trova lavoro come dama di compagnia di Miss Aldclyffe, una ricca e misteriosa signora, che in passato è stata legata al padre della giovane. Poco tempo dopo la ragazza viene a sapere che non lontano da lì vive la famiglia del suo amato Edward, ma scoprirà anche che lui è già fidanzato con un'altra donna. Miss Aldclyffe, approfittando di questa scoperta, spinge la giovane Cytherea tra le braccia di Manston, il sovraintende alle ristrutturazioni, che la signora ha fatto arrivare alla sua tenuta con uno stratagemma ed a cui è legata da un rapporto segreto e speciale.
In questo primo lavoro di Thomas Hardy si può notare una certa acerbità come se l'autore fosse ancora alla ricerca di un proprio stile ben definito. È comunque un esordio di tutto rispetto, che non smentisce le abilità dello scrittore inglese, in cui possiamo già trovare molte delle caratteristiche tipiche e dei temi portanti della sua letteratura e del suo stile: le descrizioni paesaggistiche (anche se in tono minore rispetto al suo standard), la condizione femminile, le colpe dei padri, la società vittoriana e le sue ambiguità.
Estremi rimedi è un romanzo avvincente ed emozionante, dalle molteplici sfaccettature, con una trama vivace, ricca di intrecci e misteri, in cui si susseguono incendi, complotti, ossessioni, amori tormentati, fughe nella notte, false identità, omicidi, inganni, bugie, suspence, risvolti inaspettati, che ricordano molto da vicino i romanzi di Wilkie Collins (anche se io l'ho trovato migliore di alcuni romanzi di quest'ultimo). Come dicevo questo romanzo ha molte delle caratteristiche tipiche del sensation novel, genere molto in voga in quegli anni, ma è anomalo rispetto ai canoni classici di questo tipo di stile; è infatti, pieno di rimandi, massime, riflessioni o citazioni dotte (poetiche, letterarie o bibliche) di poeti e letterati, che riescono a regalare profondità e spessore ai personaggi. Personaggi, come sempre nei romanzi di Hardy, delineati splendidamente e dalle molteplici sfaccettature; sono comuni, ingenui, appassionati, malleabili, curiosi, intriganti, sempre dilaniati dal dissidio interiore tra bene e male e tormentati dal loro passato, tanto da sembrarci delle persone in carne ed ossa, vive e reali, che si fanno amare od odiare. Ognuno di loro ha uno scopo, un obiettivo da raggiungere o qualcosa da nascondere.
Estremi rimedi si rivela una storia appassionante e scorrevole, in cui non manca l'ironia, che riesce a catturare e coinvolgente la nostra attenzione, ad emozionarci e a farci arrabbiare; dai dialoghi credibili, dalla prosa raffinata e dalla trama ben costruita che ci tiene incollati fin dalla prima pagina; sebbene aleggi un senso di mistero e di dramma incombente, è ben lontano dai risvolti cupi e pessimistici dei romanzi successivi, soprattutto quelli degli ultimi anni.
Un romanzo mai banale che parte lentamente per poi farsi, pagina dopo pagina, sempre più incalzante in un crescendo di tensione e attesa, di emozione e angoscia; in cui si mescolano il genere noir, gotico, thriller e horror; che ha in sé atmosfere cupe e oscure, ma che comunque regala la speranza, dopo aver superato le prove che la vita pone davanti, in un futuro migliore.
Estremi rimedi ha reso ancora più saldo il mio amore per questo splendido scrittore.
Ebbe la sensazione di trovarsi su una barca senza remi e di andare alla deriva a occhi chiusi lungo un fiume... non sapeva dove.
Estremi rimedi è quindi il primo di una lunga serie di romanzi ed è l'unico, tra le sue opere, che appartiene al genere sensation novel, molto in voga in quegli anni.
Protagonista di questo romanzo è la giovane Cytherea Graye (ancora un nome particolare per la protagonista femminile di un'opera di Hardy, come Elfride, Eustacia, Batscheba), che già orfana di madre, perde il padre in un incidente sul lavoro. Rimasti orfani e costretti dalla vergogna a causa di varie vicissitudini a lasciare il paese natio di Hocbridge, lei e il fratello Owen decidono di trasferirsi nella cittadina di Creston, dove Owen ha trovato un lavoro presso lo studio di un architetto e può, così, finire il suo tirocinio.
Qui conoscono Edward Springrove, collega di Owen, di cui Cytherea si innamora, corrisposta. Il loro però sembra un amore impossibile perché, dopo un incontro romantico, i due sono costretti a separarsi a causa degli impegni di lavoro di lui.
Dopo alcuni tentativi falliti, la giovane Cytherea trova lavoro come dama di compagnia di Miss Aldclyffe, una ricca e misteriosa signora, che in passato è stata legata al padre della giovane. Poco tempo dopo la ragazza viene a sapere che non lontano da lì vive la famiglia del suo amato Edward, ma scoprirà anche che lui è già fidanzato con un'altra donna. Miss Aldclyffe, approfittando di questa scoperta, spinge la giovane Cytherea tra le braccia di Manston, il sovraintende alle ristrutturazioni, che la signora ha fatto arrivare alla sua tenuta con uno stratagemma ed a cui è legata da un rapporto segreto e speciale.
In questo primo lavoro di Thomas Hardy si può notare una certa acerbità come se l'autore fosse ancora alla ricerca di un proprio stile ben definito. È comunque un esordio di tutto rispetto, che non smentisce le abilità dello scrittore inglese, in cui possiamo già trovare molte delle caratteristiche tipiche e dei temi portanti della sua letteratura e del suo stile: le descrizioni paesaggistiche (anche se in tono minore rispetto al suo standard), la condizione femminile, le colpe dei padri, la società vittoriana e le sue ambiguità.
Estremi rimedi è un romanzo avvincente ed emozionante, dalle molteplici sfaccettature, con una trama vivace, ricca di intrecci e misteri, in cui si susseguono incendi, complotti, ossessioni, amori tormentati, fughe nella notte, false identità, omicidi, inganni, bugie, suspence, risvolti inaspettati, che ricordano molto da vicino i romanzi di Wilkie Collins (anche se io l'ho trovato migliore di alcuni romanzi di quest'ultimo). Come dicevo questo romanzo ha molte delle caratteristiche tipiche del sensation novel, genere molto in voga in quegli anni, ma è anomalo rispetto ai canoni classici di questo tipo di stile; è infatti, pieno di rimandi, massime, riflessioni o citazioni dotte (poetiche, letterarie o bibliche) di poeti e letterati, che riescono a regalare profondità e spessore ai personaggi. Personaggi, come sempre nei romanzi di Hardy, delineati splendidamente e dalle molteplici sfaccettature; sono comuni, ingenui, appassionati, malleabili, curiosi, intriganti, sempre dilaniati dal dissidio interiore tra bene e male e tormentati dal loro passato, tanto da sembrarci delle persone in carne ed ossa, vive e reali, che si fanno amare od odiare. Ognuno di loro ha uno scopo, un obiettivo da raggiungere o qualcosa da nascondere.
Estremi rimedi si rivela una storia appassionante e scorrevole, in cui non manca l'ironia, che riesce a catturare e coinvolgente la nostra attenzione, ad emozionarci e a farci arrabbiare; dai dialoghi credibili, dalla prosa raffinata e dalla trama ben costruita che ci tiene incollati fin dalla prima pagina; sebbene aleggi un senso di mistero e di dramma incombente, è ben lontano dai risvolti cupi e pessimistici dei romanzi successivi, soprattutto quelli degli ultimi anni.
Un romanzo mai banale che parte lentamente per poi farsi, pagina dopo pagina, sempre più incalzante in un crescendo di tensione e attesa, di emozione e angoscia; in cui si mescolano il genere noir, gotico, thriller e horror; che ha in sé atmosfere cupe e oscure, ma che comunque regala la speranza, dopo aver superato le prove che la vita pone davanti, in un futuro migliore.
Estremi rimedi ha reso ancora più saldo il mio amore per questo splendido scrittore.
Ebbe la sensazione di trovarsi su una barca senza remi e di andare alla deriva a occhi chiusi lungo un fiume... non sapeva dove.
December 18, 2023
This is Hardy’s first novel and is written as more of a sensation novel than his more literary later works. Hardy felt he needed to write in this style in order to get published and to attract enough readers to continue getting published. The difference in style is reflected in the plotting and characterization. In both of these aspects, Hardy wants to keep the reader wondering, guessing and in a state of mystery. To accomplish this in his plotting, Hardy withholds some information and presents others in a manner that tends to lead the reader into mistaken assumptions and add to the element of surprise. Hardy also presents more twists and turns and sinister elements. For instance, there is a tragic death that is a key plot element. While tragic deaths and even murders are fairly typical of Hardy even in his more literary works, in this case the death is shrouded in atypical mysterious elements.
Hardy also strives to create this sense of mystery through his characterization. The protagonist is a young orphan 18-year-old Cytherea Graye who, to make a living, goes to work as a maid/companion to the wealthy landed Miss Aldclyffe, the woman her father loved but was unable to marry. As a result of this connection, Miss Aldclyffe looks on Cytheria like a daughter she can both dote on and control. For example, Cytheria is attracted to a neighboring young architect Edward Springlove who she had previously met through her architect brother Owen. However, Miss Aldclyffe actively plots to steer Cyntheria away from Edward and into the arms of her own choice for Cytheria’s mate, her newly hired estate manager, the good-looking Aeneas Manston. This love triangle is at the heart of the story and serves as the impetus for the sensation events and mystery elements that develop.
While Cytheria is a straightforward damsel in distress, the reader’s opinion is unsure as to Miss Aldclyffe and Cytheria’s two suitors. As he does with plot elements, Hardy hides and reveals information on the backgrounds and motivations of these characters in order to create a mystery as to their motivations and their relative degrees of good or evil.
In order to achieve the suspense and mystery he deemed necessary for this sensation novel, Hardy creates characters less real and with less depth and situations more contrived than those in his more literary dramatic novels. As a consequence, my empathy for any character, even the heroine Cytheria, was limited.
However, Hardy’s descriptive and poetic writing is still evident here just with more of a flourish as he adapts to the goals of a sensation novel. As a result of the usual Hardy stylistic presence, the book’s sensational plotting and characterization, even with the above-cited defects, turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. The sensation aspects actually made this novel a bit different from and a more entertaining reading experience than several of Hardy’s lesser quality non-sensation novels, such as The Laodicean and The Well-Beloved.
I’m only a moderate fan of sensation novels, even those of the leading masters of the form. I’ve read four Wilkie Collins and two Elizabeth Braddon sensation novels and, while I enjoyed most of them, I have yet to give one a 4 or 5-star rating. In contrast, I’m a major fan of Hardy’s work and have read all 14 of his novels and 7 of them twice. I adore Hardy’s writing style. Based on this predilection, I ended up preferring Hardy’s perhaps more amateurish attempt at a sensation novel to any of the six that I’ve read from the masters of the form. I rate this as 4 stars.
Hardy also strives to create this sense of mystery through his characterization. The protagonist is a young orphan 18-year-old Cytherea Graye who, to make a living, goes to work as a maid/companion to the wealthy landed Miss Aldclyffe, the woman her father loved but was unable to marry. As a result of this connection, Miss Aldclyffe looks on Cytheria like a daughter she can both dote on and control. For example, Cytheria is attracted to a neighboring young architect Edward Springlove who she had previously met through her architect brother Owen. However, Miss Aldclyffe actively plots to steer Cyntheria away from Edward and into the arms of her own choice for Cytheria’s mate, her newly hired estate manager, the good-looking Aeneas Manston. This love triangle is at the heart of the story and serves as the impetus for the sensation events and mystery elements that develop.
While Cytheria is a straightforward damsel in distress, the reader’s opinion is unsure as to Miss Aldclyffe and Cytheria’s two suitors. As he does with plot elements, Hardy hides and reveals information on the backgrounds and motivations of these characters in order to create a mystery as to their motivations and their relative degrees of good or evil.
In order to achieve the suspense and mystery he deemed necessary for this sensation novel, Hardy creates characters less real and with less depth and situations more contrived than those in his more literary dramatic novels. As a consequence, my empathy for any character, even the heroine Cytheria, was limited.
However, Hardy’s descriptive and poetic writing is still evident here just with more of a flourish as he adapts to the goals of a sensation novel. As a result of the usual Hardy stylistic presence, the book’s sensational plotting and characterization, even with the above-cited defects, turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. The sensation aspects actually made this novel a bit different from and a more entertaining reading experience than several of Hardy’s lesser quality non-sensation novels, such as The Laodicean and The Well-Beloved.
I’m only a moderate fan of sensation novels, even those of the leading masters of the form. I’ve read four Wilkie Collins and two Elizabeth Braddon sensation novels and, while I enjoyed most of them, I have yet to give one a 4 or 5-star rating. In contrast, I’m a major fan of Hardy’s work and have read all 14 of his novels and 7 of them twice. I adore Hardy’s writing style. Based on this predilection, I ended up preferring Hardy’s perhaps more amateurish attempt at a sensation novel to any of the six that I’ve read from the masters of the form. I rate this as 4 stars.
July 10, 2016
I probably wouldn't even have heard of Desperate Remedies if I hadn't got it out of the library to listen to in the car. I'm glad I found it, however, for this was a really interesting novel and an entertaining and surprising one. The blurb led me to expect something mediocre - Hardy's first novel, hints of greatness, ultimately flawed etc. I'm partial to these lesser known works and this did not disappoint. It's not so polished, true, and it was uneven in places in terms of pacing and structure (listening in bursts in the car really helped with this; I might have had less patience if I had been reading it), but there was a lot to like.
In this novel, Hardy was trying to write a sensation novel in the style of Wilkie Collins with intrigue, murder, deception, power struggles and so on and it's a successful addition to the genre. To be fair, I worked out the big 'twist' from the very beginning but that didn't make the journey any less enjoyable. However, you can also find classic Hardy in the makings here - his sympathetic portrayals of women, his love of landscape, his Greek chorus of rustics, his major set-pieces and his interest in fate and coincidence. This novel surely has a place for for lovers of Hardy and his craft as well as the Victorian novel.
A few more intriguing elements - hints of a lesbian affair or at least lesbian feeling, far more graphically depicted than I would have expected makes me want to read more about representation of sensuality between women in mainstream Victorian literature. Hardy's understanding of feeling and emotion is top notch and he draws some memorable characters with an excellent portrait of a very understandable (and therefore chilling) villain.
Very well worth picking up!
In this novel, Hardy was trying to write a sensation novel in the style of Wilkie Collins with intrigue, murder, deception, power struggles and so on and it's a successful addition to the genre. To be fair, I worked out the big 'twist' from the very beginning but that didn't make the journey any less enjoyable. However, you can also find classic Hardy in the makings here - his sympathetic portrayals of women, his love of landscape, his Greek chorus of rustics, his major set-pieces and his interest in fate and coincidence. This novel surely has a place for for lovers of Hardy and his craft as well as the Victorian novel.
A few more intriguing elements - hints of a lesbian affair or at least lesbian feeling, far more graphically depicted than I would have expected makes me want to read more about representation of sensuality between women in mainstream Victorian literature. Hardy's understanding of feeling and emotion is top notch and he draws some memorable characters with an excellent portrait of a very understandable (and therefore chilling) villain.
Very well worth picking up!
January 15, 2022
This was Thomas Hardy’s first published novel, in 1871, and it shows clearly both his inexperience and his future genius.
The plot is as complicated as anything by Agatha Christie, his characterisations effective. They are deep, though, as you may expect in a social mystery, not all-revealing, to avoid giving away past events by fully explaining what was in the minds of his protagonists and thereby spoiling the plot. One of Hardy’s strengths is his ability to minutely describe environments in such detail that you can imagine yourself there, experiencing it with the characters of the story. His prose is often beautiful as well as detailed, and one reason he is regarded as an important Victorian writer is this ability to bring to life the way life was lived in those times; he describes not only the landscape and the architecture but also the work being done, the language and dialects that were used, the clothing and possessions/tools of the people. In short, his books contribute to history as well as entertaining us. On the other hand, he does sometimes go on a bit, and the Victorian way of talking comes through in his writing, which can be long-winded and not very clear in places. You just have to accept them and move on.
This convoluted tale mainly concerns half a dozen characters, though many others also come into the story along the way. The themes are honesty/dishonesty, honour, pride, fear of poverty/loss of social standing and love. The primary theme is marriage and all that that entailed in the 19th century. The basic story is plausible though in detail is stretched to its ultimate unrealistic limits, hence my comparison with Christie. To be fair to Hardy, his potential publisher had asked him for a story highly saleable rather than something less dramatic. Once published, complaints were made about its ‘immorality’ – clearly Victorian hypocrisy was at its height!
I love history and have read a reasonable amount about the Victorian age, as well as seeing many films and dramas set then, but with my 21st century head on I was nevertheless shocked and appalled at the Victorians’ social mores and values, and how these affected women in particular. This story brings home the vague knowledge I had that women were chattels and had to be extremely careful in their behaviour or lose their reputation for ever, but this tale really brings it home with a bang. Women are still fighting for a just world but after reading this I realised just how steep a climb it has been since then.
It did annoy me (vex me in Hardy’s language) that he makes a large number of generalised statements about what a woman would/would not do or think in such a set of circumstances, which alone indicates the depth of male arrogance, power over and patronisation of women prevalent at that time, and this did spoil the book a bit for me. In fact, without the values and mores I am referring to, there would be no story – in today’s world it could not happen, thank goodness. One has to remember, however, that it is the product both of its time and an author who was still learning his craft, so I took it on its own merits and enjoyed it simply as a work of fiction.
It is quite a long book, 392 pages plus the Introduction, but the story accelerates and becomes progressively more complicated as it goes, so you do want to keep reading just a bit more. Mine is the Folio Society version, bound in cloth on high quality paper. There is an Introduction by Trevor Johnson and the illustrations are by Peter Reddick, whose style fits Hardy’s work perfectly. Three and a half stars rounded up to four for presentation and a good first effort by the author.
The plot is as complicated as anything by Agatha Christie, his characterisations effective. They are deep, though, as you may expect in a social mystery, not all-revealing, to avoid giving away past events by fully explaining what was in the minds of his protagonists and thereby spoiling the plot. One of Hardy’s strengths is his ability to minutely describe environments in such detail that you can imagine yourself there, experiencing it with the characters of the story. His prose is often beautiful as well as detailed, and one reason he is regarded as an important Victorian writer is this ability to bring to life the way life was lived in those times; he describes not only the landscape and the architecture but also the work being done, the language and dialects that were used, the clothing and possessions/tools of the people. In short, his books contribute to history as well as entertaining us. On the other hand, he does sometimes go on a bit, and the Victorian way of talking comes through in his writing, which can be long-winded and not very clear in places. You just have to accept them and move on.
This convoluted tale mainly concerns half a dozen characters, though many others also come into the story along the way. The themes are honesty/dishonesty, honour, pride, fear of poverty/loss of social standing and love. The primary theme is marriage and all that that entailed in the 19th century. The basic story is plausible though in detail is stretched to its ultimate unrealistic limits, hence my comparison with Christie. To be fair to Hardy, his potential publisher had asked him for a story highly saleable rather than something less dramatic. Once published, complaints were made about its ‘immorality’ – clearly Victorian hypocrisy was at its height!
I love history and have read a reasonable amount about the Victorian age, as well as seeing many films and dramas set then, but with my 21st century head on I was nevertheless shocked and appalled at the Victorians’ social mores and values, and how these affected women in particular. This story brings home the vague knowledge I had that women were chattels and had to be extremely careful in their behaviour or lose their reputation for ever, but this tale really brings it home with a bang. Women are still fighting for a just world but after reading this I realised just how steep a climb it has been since then.
It did annoy me (vex me in Hardy’s language) that he makes a large number of generalised statements about what a woman would/would not do or think in such a set of circumstances, which alone indicates the depth of male arrogance, power over and patronisation of women prevalent at that time, and this did spoil the book a bit for me. In fact, without the values and mores I am referring to, there would be no story – in today’s world it could not happen, thank goodness. One has to remember, however, that it is the product both of its time and an author who was still learning his craft, so I took it on its own merits and enjoyed it simply as a work of fiction.
It is quite a long book, 392 pages plus the Introduction, but the story accelerates and becomes progressively more complicated as it goes, so you do want to keep reading just a bit more. Mine is the Folio Society version, bound in cloth on high quality paper. There is an Introduction by Trevor Johnson and the illustrations are by Peter Reddick, whose style fits Hardy’s work perfectly. Three and a half stars rounded up to four for presentation and a good first effort by the author.
October 5, 2018
En primer lugar os presento la novela con un dato:
- Remedios desesperados es la primera novela de Thomas Hardy y que Ático de los libros edita por primera vez en español y con el nombre del autor.. Digo bien, ya que esta novela nunca fue publicada con su verdadero nombre debido a lo escandaloso de su narrativa. Os puedo asegurar que el contenido sexual es alto para lo que en esa época se publicaba; hay hasta una escena lésbica.
Dicho esto, os podréis hacer a la idea de la joya que ha caído en mis manos. La hasta ahora obra inédita de un autor y que además, se ha editado en un formato maravilloso: tapas de cartoné con una preciosa ilustración, texto con un tamaño de fuente más que adecuado (mis ojos ya agradecen esas cosas) y papel de calidad. En definitiva, un libro del que presumir y no sólo por su contenido, también por su continente.
Respecto a la obra:
Es una novela al más puro estilo de Wikie Collins. No os puedo contar nada para no hacer spoiler, pero os aseguro que no le falta de nada; un folletín victoriano en toda regla.
En la historia tiene especial importancia el hecho de que el destino y sus fatalidades son los que harán que los personajes se vean zarandeados de una escena a otra de manera casi trágica.
Misterio, romance, líos familiares...
Me ha gustado especialmente los toques de humor tan irónicos...qué sutileza lanzando dardos.
¿Recomendaría este libro? Sí, sin duda alguna. Una joya clásica que va a ser indispensable en las bibliotecas.
- Remedios desesperados es la primera novela de Thomas Hardy y que Ático de los libros edita por primera vez en español y con el nombre del autor.. Digo bien, ya que esta novela nunca fue publicada con su verdadero nombre debido a lo escandaloso de su narrativa. Os puedo asegurar que el contenido sexual es alto para lo que en esa época se publicaba; hay hasta una escena lésbica.
Dicho esto, os podréis hacer a la idea de la joya que ha caído en mis manos. La hasta ahora obra inédita de un autor y que además, se ha editado en un formato maravilloso: tapas de cartoné con una preciosa ilustración, texto con un tamaño de fuente más que adecuado (mis ojos ya agradecen esas cosas) y papel de calidad. En definitiva, un libro del que presumir y no sólo por su contenido, también por su continente.
Respecto a la obra:
Es una novela al más puro estilo de Wikie Collins. No os puedo contar nada para no hacer spoiler, pero os aseguro que no le falta de nada; un folletín victoriano en toda regla.
En la historia tiene especial importancia el hecho de que el destino y sus fatalidades son los que harán que los personajes se vean zarandeados de una escena a otra de manera casi trágica.
Misterio, romance, líos familiares...
Me ha gustado especialmente los toques de humor tan irónicos...qué sutileza lanzando dardos.
¿Recomendaría este libro? Sí, sin duda alguna. Una joya clásica que va a ser indispensable en las bibliotecas.
April 29, 2010
Oh, this was quite strange, but worth reading. It was Hardy's first published novel, and it's most unlike his other books, an odd mishmash of romance and Gothic and sensation novel. When Cytherea Graye takes a position as lady's maid to eccentric, beautiful Miss Aldclyffe, she is drawn under the influence of the charismatic Manston, Miss Aldclyffe's steward, and entangled in a web of romantic and violent intrigue.
It's overwritten (never a two-syllable word where a four-syllable one can be used instead), and the plot takes too long to get going, but it's oddly compelling and atmospheric anyway. It's full of quotations and allusions, which often weigh it down (like the multisyllabic vocabulary), but they're often used in an interestingly subversive fashion. There's an ongoing allusion to The Aeneid, for instance, but the character whose first name is Aeneas is far from noble or pious, and a former prostitute is compared to the virginal Camilla for the courage they bear in common.
It's overwritten (never a two-syllable word where a four-syllable one can be used instead), and the plot takes too long to get going, but it's oddly compelling and atmospheric anyway. It's full of quotations and allusions, which often weigh it down (like the multisyllabic vocabulary), but they're often used in an interestingly subversive fashion. There's an ongoing allusion to The Aeneid, for instance, but the character whose first name is Aeneas is far from noble or pious, and a former prostitute is compared to the virginal Camilla for the courage they bear in common.
November 14, 2015
Nobody can enter into another's nature truly, that's what is so grievous.
September 23, 2022
Me ha encantado. Thomas Hardy nunca me defrauda. Me ha tenido con el corazón en vilo durante toda la novela. ¡Ojalá hubiera escrito cientos de libros! Totalmente recomendable.
January 22, 2020
"Desperate Remedies" is a novel that was written by Thomas Hardy and published in three volumes in 1871. It was his first published novel. Hardy had completed his first novel "The Poor Man And The Lady" in 1868 but he was advised to either rewrite the novel, or" what would be much better...attempt a novel with a purely artistic purpose giving it a more complicated plot."The result was Desperate Remedies.I enjoyed the novel although I still haven't decided whether I am giving it 3 or 4 stars, maybe I'll know by the end of the review.
Hardy, when his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862; there he enrolled as a student at King's College London. He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association and Hardy was in charge of the excavation of the graveyard of St Pancras Old Church. Perhaps Hardy's background as an architect is the reason there are so many architects running around in this book.
The main character in the story is Cytherea Graye, her father, Ambrose Graye is an architect. In fact he dies when he falls from the scaffolding set against a church spire that he was supervising the completion of, being the architect of the structure. Cytherea sees him fall to his death which was creepy. Her brother Owen is a young architect, or at least he is working his way to becoming one. The hero of our story is Edward Springrove. Owen meets Edward in the office where he works and it is through Owen that Edward and Cytherea meet. Why does Owen meet Edward in the office??? Because Edward is an......architect.
In the first chapter of the book we have a young Ambrose Graye just beginning his life as an architect when he meets Cytherea Bradleigh, the daughter of a retired Navy officer . This Cytherea was "the most beautiful and queenly being he had ever beheld"and he was in love with her by the second page of the book, which happens often in novels. I am fairly certain that if I was in a novel it would take at least a few chapters of knowing a person before I was in love, but, then again, I'm not in a novel. She seems to enjoy being with him and her parents approve of him, so what could go wrong? After a few weeks he tells her how much he loves her and proposes at which time she answers "Ah-we must part now." and runs away later sending him a note telling him goodbye forever, something divides us eternally and she is gone from the scene. Do we find out what divides them eternally? Yes, but not until page 400 or so. Although if you read the book you'll probably figure it out before then.
Ambrose goes on to marry and have two children, the before mentioned Owen and Cytherea (yes that's what he named her), his wife dies, we're not told why, and he is left with his two children. Now we jump ahead to where Ambrose goes up to check on the church spire and steps backward and now he's gone from the book too. Owen is a young man by now, and Cytherea is 18. We find that through unwise loans and speculations Owen and Cytherea have been left penniless. They leave their home and move to the town of Budmouth where Owen begins his work as an architect and Cytherea advertises in local papers for work as a governess, lady's maid or companion. While she waits for any replies to her advertisement she is introduced to Edward Springrove. Of course they fall in love probably within two pages of meeting but I can't quite remember. However, one day as they are out on a boat rowing around the bay Edward tells Cytherea he loves her, kisses her, everything seems fine; then he tells her that there is something she doesn't know, something he's kept from her, a great source of uneasiness. Cytherea begs him to explain but he won't and leaves the next day to advance his profession in London. And do we find out what his source of great uneasiness is? Yes, and rather soon.
Cytherea receives a reply to her advertisement from a lady, Miss Aldclyffe of Knapwater House and takes a post as her lady's maid. She quickly becomes more than that though. Now there comes an extremely strange event on the very first night Cytherea is in the house that if it would have happened to me, there wouldn't be a second night in the house.
A distinct woman's whisper came to her through the keyhole: 'Cytherea!'
Only one being in the house knew her Christian name, and that was Miss Aldclyffe. Cytherea stepped out of bed, went to the door, and whispered back, 'Yes?'
'Let me come in, darling.'
The young woman paused in a conflict between judgment and emotion. It was now mistress and maid no longer; woman and woman only. Yes; she must let her come in, poor thing.
She got a light in an instant, opened the door, and raising her eyes and the candle, saw Miss Aldclyffe standing outside in her dressing-gown.
'Now you see that it is really myself; put out the light,' said the visitor. 'I want to stay here with you, Cythie. I came to ask you to come down into my bed, but it is snugger here. But remember that you are mistress in this room, and that I have no business here, and that you may send me away if you choose. Shall I go?'
'O no; you shan't indeed if you don't want to,' said Cythie generously.
The instant they were in bed Miss Aldclyffe freed herself from the last remnant of restraint. She flung her arms round the young girl, and pressed her gently to her heart.
I don't understand this woman at all. She just met Cytherea that day, she comes to her room, she stays and insists on hearing her say her prayers, keeps her there with her for months after this and as a companion not as a lady's maid after this first day. The only explanation possible I came up with is that these two women had discovered a few hours before this that Miss Aldclyffe was Miss "Cytherea" Aldclyffe, she was the woman Cytherea's father had once loved. So I think that perhaps realizing this young Cytherea is the daughter of her long ago lover she develops that fondness for her. I puzzle for awhile how this woman, who at the beginning of the novel is Cytherea Bradleigh is now Cytherea Aldclyffe without ever being married but there is this explanation:
'Has Miss Aldclyffe's family always been rich?' said Cytherea.
'O no. The property, with the name, came from her mother's uncle. Her family is a branch of the old Aldclyffe family on the maternal side. Her mother married a Bradleigh—a mere nobody at that time—and was on that account cut by her relations. But very singularly the other branch of the family died out one by one—three of them, and Miss Aldclyffe's great-uncle then left all his property, including this estate, to Captain Bradleigh and his wife—Miss Aldclyffe's father and mother—on condition that they took the old family name as well. There's all about it in the "Landed Gentry." 'Tis a thing very often done.'
The housekeeper tells Cytherea that Farmer Springrove, the cider-maker, and innkeeper of the Three Tranters Inn and Edward's father, is the one who recommended her for the position as a lady's maid. Cytherea realizes it was all Edward's doing. However, it is puzzling to me because that means everyone in the area knows Edward and everyone in the area knows what his secret is that he wouldn't tell Cytherea. So why didn't he just tell her in the first place? Surely he had to know she would find out almost immediately which is exactly what happens and here is the big secret:
'Mean? Why that all the world knows him to be engaged to be married, and that the wedding is soon to take place.' She made the remark bluntly and superciliously, as if to obtain absolution at the hands of her family pride for the weak confidences of the night.
But even the frigidity of Miss Aldclyffe's morning mood was overcome by the look of sick and blank despair which the carelessly uttered words had produced upon Cytherea's face. She sank back into a chair, and buried her face in her hands.....
.......'You were too easily won. I'd have made him or anybody else speak out before he should have kissed my face for his pleasure. But you are one of those precipitantly fond things who are yearning to throw away their hearts upon the first worthless fellow who says good-morning. In the first place, you shouldn't have loved him so quickly: in the next, if you must have loved him off-hand, you should have concealed it. It tickled his vanity: "By Jove, that girl's in love with me already!" he thought.'
So poor Cytherea does the right thing, writing Edward a letter telling him she can no longer see him and he should do the honourable thing and marry his fiance, who she had met by that time. If only Edward had done the right thing, which would have been just about anything else except what he did, he may have still had Cytherea the woman he really loved.
Meanwhile Miss Aldcyffe has decided to hire a steward. Although she goes through the motions of finding the best man for the position; contacting her lawyer, advertising the position, carefully going through responses, she really only has one man in mind for the position and against the advise of her lawyer hires Aeneas Manston, an architect of course. Manston and Cytherea meet and he falls madly in love with her although she doesn't love him. However Manston seems to keep his distance from Cytherea even though Miss Aldclyffe seems to desperately want them to be together. He, however, has his own secret. Everyone does. His secret comes to light pretty quickly, it is a wife and she shows up at his door one day surprising everyone in the neighborhood who all thought he was single. Finding Manston away from home and the door locked Mrs. Manston goes to the inn and takes a room for the night. That night the inn catches fire and burns to the ground taking poor Mrs. Manston with it, or did it?
This is the fun part. Did Mrs. Manston die in a tragic but accidental fire? It seems that way at first, Manston seems genuinely shocked when he finds she is dead. Miss Aldclyffe is elated and starts pushing for a marriage between Cytherea and Manston immediately. Edward is suspicious, therefore we are suspicious. Was the fire accidental? Was Manston truly shocked or did he already know of the fire when they went to tell him. Did he hate her enough to kill her? Did Miss Aldclyff hate her enough to kill her? Is she even dead? I'm not telling. Read the book. I've decided on four stars even though the second half wasn't as enjoyable as the first. I'll re-read it someday.
Hardy, when his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862; there he enrolled as a student at King's College London. He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association and Hardy was in charge of the excavation of the graveyard of St Pancras Old Church. Perhaps Hardy's background as an architect is the reason there are so many architects running around in this book.
The main character in the story is Cytherea Graye, her father, Ambrose Graye is an architect. In fact he dies when he falls from the scaffolding set against a church spire that he was supervising the completion of, being the architect of the structure. Cytherea sees him fall to his death which was creepy. Her brother Owen is a young architect, or at least he is working his way to becoming one. The hero of our story is Edward Springrove. Owen meets Edward in the office where he works and it is through Owen that Edward and Cytherea meet. Why does Owen meet Edward in the office??? Because Edward is an......architect.
In the first chapter of the book we have a young Ambrose Graye just beginning his life as an architect when he meets Cytherea Bradleigh, the daughter of a retired Navy officer . This Cytherea was "the most beautiful and queenly being he had ever beheld"and he was in love with her by the second page of the book, which happens often in novels. I am fairly certain that if I was in a novel it would take at least a few chapters of knowing a person before I was in love, but, then again, I'm not in a novel. She seems to enjoy being with him and her parents approve of him, so what could go wrong? After a few weeks he tells her how much he loves her and proposes at which time she answers "Ah-we must part now." and runs away later sending him a note telling him goodbye forever, something divides us eternally and she is gone from the scene. Do we find out what divides them eternally? Yes, but not until page 400 or so. Although if you read the book you'll probably figure it out before then.
Ambrose goes on to marry and have two children, the before mentioned Owen and Cytherea (yes that's what he named her), his wife dies, we're not told why, and he is left with his two children. Now we jump ahead to where Ambrose goes up to check on the church spire and steps backward and now he's gone from the book too. Owen is a young man by now, and Cytherea is 18. We find that through unwise loans and speculations Owen and Cytherea have been left penniless. They leave their home and move to the town of Budmouth where Owen begins his work as an architect and Cytherea advertises in local papers for work as a governess, lady's maid or companion. While she waits for any replies to her advertisement she is introduced to Edward Springrove. Of course they fall in love probably within two pages of meeting but I can't quite remember. However, one day as they are out on a boat rowing around the bay Edward tells Cytherea he loves her, kisses her, everything seems fine; then he tells her that there is something she doesn't know, something he's kept from her, a great source of uneasiness. Cytherea begs him to explain but he won't and leaves the next day to advance his profession in London. And do we find out what his source of great uneasiness is? Yes, and rather soon.
Cytherea receives a reply to her advertisement from a lady, Miss Aldclyffe of Knapwater House and takes a post as her lady's maid. She quickly becomes more than that though. Now there comes an extremely strange event on the very first night Cytherea is in the house that if it would have happened to me, there wouldn't be a second night in the house.
A distinct woman's whisper came to her through the keyhole: 'Cytherea!'
Only one being in the house knew her Christian name, and that was Miss Aldclyffe. Cytherea stepped out of bed, went to the door, and whispered back, 'Yes?'
'Let me come in, darling.'
The young woman paused in a conflict between judgment and emotion. It was now mistress and maid no longer; woman and woman only. Yes; she must let her come in, poor thing.
She got a light in an instant, opened the door, and raising her eyes and the candle, saw Miss Aldclyffe standing outside in her dressing-gown.
'Now you see that it is really myself; put out the light,' said the visitor. 'I want to stay here with you, Cythie. I came to ask you to come down into my bed, but it is snugger here. But remember that you are mistress in this room, and that I have no business here, and that you may send me away if you choose. Shall I go?'
'O no; you shan't indeed if you don't want to,' said Cythie generously.
The instant they were in bed Miss Aldclyffe freed herself from the last remnant of restraint. She flung her arms round the young girl, and pressed her gently to her heart.
I don't understand this woman at all. She just met Cytherea that day, she comes to her room, she stays and insists on hearing her say her prayers, keeps her there with her for months after this and as a companion not as a lady's maid after this first day. The only explanation possible I came up with is that these two women had discovered a few hours before this that Miss Aldclyffe was Miss "Cytherea" Aldclyffe, she was the woman Cytherea's father had once loved. So I think that perhaps realizing this young Cytherea is the daughter of her long ago lover she develops that fondness for her. I puzzle for awhile how this woman, who at the beginning of the novel is Cytherea Bradleigh is now Cytherea Aldclyffe without ever being married but there is this explanation:
'Has Miss Aldclyffe's family always been rich?' said Cytherea.
'O no. The property, with the name, came from her mother's uncle. Her family is a branch of the old Aldclyffe family on the maternal side. Her mother married a Bradleigh—a mere nobody at that time—and was on that account cut by her relations. But very singularly the other branch of the family died out one by one—three of them, and Miss Aldclyffe's great-uncle then left all his property, including this estate, to Captain Bradleigh and his wife—Miss Aldclyffe's father and mother—on condition that they took the old family name as well. There's all about it in the "Landed Gentry." 'Tis a thing very often done.'
The housekeeper tells Cytherea that Farmer Springrove, the cider-maker, and innkeeper of the Three Tranters Inn and Edward's father, is the one who recommended her for the position as a lady's maid. Cytherea realizes it was all Edward's doing. However, it is puzzling to me because that means everyone in the area knows Edward and everyone in the area knows what his secret is that he wouldn't tell Cytherea. So why didn't he just tell her in the first place? Surely he had to know she would find out almost immediately which is exactly what happens and here is the big secret:
'Mean? Why that all the world knows him to be engaged to be married, and that the wedding is soon to take place.' She made the remark bluntly and superciliously, as if to obtain absolution at the hands of her family pride for the weak confidences of the night.
But even the frigidity of Miss Aldclyffe's morning mood was overcome by the look of sick and blank despair which the carelessly uttered words had produced upon Cytherea's face. She sank back into a chair, and buried her face in her hands.....
.......'You were too easily won. I'd have made him or anybody else speak out before he should have kissed my face for his pleasure. But you are one of those precipitantly fond things who are yearning to throw away their hearts upon the first worthless fellow who says good-morning. In the first place, you shouldn't have loved him so quickly: in the next, if you must have loved him off-hand, you should have concealed it. It tickled his vanity: "By Jove, that girl's in love with me already!" he thought.'
So poor Cytherea does the right thing, writing Edward a letter telling him she can no longer see him and he should do the honourable thing and marry his fiance, who she had met by that time. If only Edward had done the right thing, which would have been just about anything else except what he did, he may have still had Cytherea the woman he really loved.
Meanwhile Miss Aldcyffe has decided to hire a steward. Although she goes through the motions of finding the best man for the position; contacting her lawyer, advertising the position, carefully going through responses, she really only has one man in mind for the position and against the advise of her lawyer hires Aeneas Manston, an architect of course. Manston and Cytherea meet and he falls madly in love with her although she doesn't love him. However Manston seems to keep his distance from Cytherea even though Miss Aldclyffe seems to desperately want them to be together. He, however, has his own secret. Everyone does. His secret comes to light pretty quickly, it is a wife and she shows up at his door one day surprising everyone in the neighborhood who all thought he was single. Finding Manston away from home and the door locked Mrs. Manston goes to the inn and takes a room for the night. That night the inn catches fire and burns to the ground taking poor Mrs. Manston with it, or did it?
This is the fun part. Did Mrs. Manston die in a tragic but accidental fire? It seems that way at first, Manston seems genuinely shocked when he finds she is dead. Miss Aldclyffe is elated and starts pushing for a marriage between Cytherea and Manston immediately. Edward is suspicious, therefore we are suspicious. Was the fire accidental? Was Manston truly shocked or did he already know of the fire when they went to tell him. Did he hate her enough to kill her? Did Miss Aldclyff hate her enough to kill her? Is she even dead? I'm not telling. Read the book. I've decided on four stars even though the second half wasn't as enjoyable as the first. I'll re-read it someday.
June 30, 2021
**** e 1/2
April 2, 2017
More than anything else, I found this book tiresome
"How dare such creatures proffer tiresome trash,
paid off by moneyed wretches like themselves,
while humanity hungers, longing for
renaissance..."
in particular the interjection of obscure bits of poetry and religious and classical references that I can scarcely believe meant any more to Mr Hardy's original readers than they do to me. These were to illustrate points and, I suspect, to demonstrate what a fantastically well read chap Hardy considered himself to be (and probably was). I started to collect them at first:
the attitude of Imogen by the cave of Belarius
Like Curius at his Sabine farm,
Such a Cushi could not realize the possibility of such an unmoved David as this.
His was the system of Dares at the Sicilian games—
I even looked a couple up (what did they do in 1871 without Google?) but I got bored and tried to ignore them, though it was hard. To be sure, when the teacher asked the class to make up a sentence with "nullo
cultu" in it, young Tom Hardy's hand must have shot up.
I didn't really get the point of all that "Events of…" business. Maybe it was supposed to be innovative but it didn't seem to add much value. So I ignored that too, and ploughed on with the tale of a girl with a name sounding like a sexually transmitted disease.
I could see that Hardy had tried hard to vary the telling of the story by having different points of view, also telling it through direct conversation, hearsay, letters, but I thought he carried it a bit far by having the end of the story told through a group of country yokel bellringers, complete with almost unintelligible dialect. It was all a bit stiff. I mean, Edward Springrove obviously never read "100 best chat up lines" or he never would have used one like 'If I had known an Amaryllis was coming here, I should not have made arrangements for leaving..'. I've heard less stilted conversations between the Flowerpot Men and Little Weed than I read in this book.
I thought the characters were bizarre. Surely Miss Aldclyffe would not have inspired such love in Graye senior if she was such an evil cow? Edward Springrove, the rogue who was affianced to one women yet dallied with another turns out to be a hero, while Manston, who acted pretty honourably towards Cyth. turns out to be a villain. I don't think this was really twists and turns of the plot so much as the characters just not making sense. I guess Hardy never majored in psychology?
I think Hardy's views of women as demonstrated by this book are execrable and he is obviously a complete misogynist (was he gay?). Although he is not immune to men's favourite fantasy with a Fingersmith-like scene between Cyth senior and Cyth junior, his women are all stereotypes – dessiccated old spinster, scheming bitch, pathetic victim, gossip etc. The only one I had a sneaking regard for was Adelaide who, fed up with waiting for her faithless fiance, made off with a rich bloke. Young Cytherea was the absolute limit. More than half way through the book something (I forget what) was said to reduce her to mere passivity. Excuse me, but I thought she was pretty passive from the start.
I thought this book was pretty desperate, but out of respect for the member of the book group that chose it, I did not indulge in the remedy of throwing it from a speeding car into a ditch but instead soldiered on to the end.
Never did like Hardy, anyway!
"How dare such creatures proffer tiresome trash,
paid off by moneyed wretches like themselves,
while humanity hungers, longing for
renaissance..."
in particular the interjection of obscure bits of poetry and religious and classical references that I can scarcely believe meant any more to Mr Hardy's original readers than they do to me. These were to illustrate points and, I suspect, to demonstrate what a fantastically well read chap Hardy considered himself to be (and probably was). I started to collect them at first:
the attitude of Imogen by the cave of Belarius
Like Curius at his Sabine farm,
Such a Cushi could not realize the possibility of such an unmoved David as this.
His was the system of Dares at the Sicilian games—
I even looked a couple up (what did they do in 1871 without Google?) but I got bored and tried to ignore them, though it was hard. To be sure, when the teacher asked the class to make up a sentence with "nullo
cultu" in it, young Tom Hardy's hand must have shot up.
I didn't really get the point of all that "Events of…" business. Maybe it was supposed to be innovative but it didn't seem to add much value. So I ignored that too, and ploughed on with the tale of a girl with a name sounding like a sexually transmitted disease.
I could see that Hardy had tried hard to vary the telling of the story by having different points of view, also telling it through direct conversation, hearsay, letters, but I thought he carried it a bit far by having the end of the story told through a group of country yokel bellringers, complete with almost unintelligible dialect. It was all a bit stiff. I mean, Edward Springrove obviously never read "100 best chat up lines" or he never would have used one like 'If I had known an Amaryllis was coming here, I should not have made arrangements for leaving..'. I've heard less stilted conversations between the Flowerpot Men and Little Weed than I read in this book.
I thought the characters were bizarre. Surely Miss Aldclyffe would not have inspired such love in Graye senior if she was such an evil cow? Edward Springrove, the rogue who was affianced to one women yet dallied with another turns out to be a hero, while Manston, who acted pretty honourably towards Cyth. turns out to be a villain. I don't think this was really twists and turns of the plot so much as the characters just not making sense. I guess Hardy never majored in psychology?
I think Hardy's views of women as demonstrated by this book are execrable and he is obviously a complete misogynist (was he gay?). Although he is not immune to men's favourite fantasy with a Fingersmith-like scene between Cyth senior and Cyth junior, his women are all stereotypes – dessiccated old spinster, scheming bitch, pathetic victim, gossip etc. The only one I had a sneaking regard for was Adelaide who, fed up with waiting for her faithless fiance, made off with a rich bloke. Young Cytherea was the absolute limit. More than half way through the book something (I forget what) was said to reduce her to mere passivity. Excuse me, but I thought she was pretty passive from the start.
I thought this book was pretty desperate, but out of respect for the member of the book group that chose it, I did not indulge in the remedy of throwing it from a speeding car into a ditch but instead soldiered on to the end.
Never did like Hardy, anyway!
February 4, 2020
Come non notare la grandezza di Hardy sin da una prima opera come questa? Lunghe descrizioni magistralmente dirette, storia conturbante, dinamiche familiari emotive.
È il caso della storia di due fratelli orfani, sommersi dai debiti del padre, che cercano il riscatto in questo romanzo piacevole e di tematica perfettamente hardiana che però stavolta strizza l'occhio anche alle sensational novel tanto in voga in quel periodo.
È il caso della storia di due fratelli orfani, sommersi dai debiti del padre, che cercano il riscatto in questo romanzo piacevole e di tematica perfettamente hardiana che però stavolta strizza l'occhio anche alle sensational novel tanto in voga in quel periodo.
March 18, 2015
So interesting, to read Hardy's second attempt at a novel (and first published work) - the difference between it and "Jude the Obscure", his almost-last novel, is remarkable. Definitely on the sensational side. I enjoyed it, but it lacked the depth of his other work. For the sake of seeing how his writing developed, it's worth it - it's an interesting story in it's own right. But it did make me realize how much I love Hardy's descriptions of old country life and people, and his painstaking character-building. This book is like the crust on a deep-dish pie, light and flaky but you break through to amazing richness of flavor. Just after, he wrote "Under the Greenwood Tree".
(It recently came to my attention that some people refer to Hardy as a "Romance" writer. I was so irritated! And yet in every one of his novels (I think)love is the central issue - so why does that word "Romance" bother me? Ugh! It does. I dislike it. I don't equate it with love. I don't think of Hardy as a "Romance Novelist", just the thought makes me break out in hives.)
(It recently came to my attention that some people refer to Hardy as a "Romance" writer. I was so irritated! And yet in every one of his novels (I think)love is the central issue - so why does that word "Romance" bother me? Ugh! It does. I dislike it. I don't equate it with love. I don't think of Hardy as a "Romance Novelist", just the thought makes me break out in hives.)
May 12, 2014
Thomas Hardy’s first book was rejected by publishers because the plot went nowhere. The plot certainly went somewhere with his second book and first published novel, Desperate Remedies. Considering how many of Thomas Hardy’s novels were made into movies, I’m surprised that this one wasn’t. He’s built a very strong cast of characters. The heroine is strong and rational while the villain is dastardly indeed. The tale is one part mystery and one part love triangle. I’d even go as far as to call it gothic. This is the first time I’ve read anything by Hardy remotely approaching gothic, and I quite enjoyed it.
After the untimely deaths of their parents, two young adults go out into the world together to try to fend for themselves. The brother tries to find a job related to his architectural studies while the sister, Cytherea, looks for a position as a lady’s maid. As fate would have it, Cytherea accepts a position in the home of a lady whose past is closely connected to that of Cytherea’s family.
Two men vie for Cytherea’s attention, but she finds herself not trusting either of them. The first tries to kiss her in a row boat and the second creeps her out by drawing her into his house during a thunderstorm and playing his organ for her. No, this is not a euphemism. And, no, he doesn’t actually know how to play an organ (this sounds strangely like a bad date I once had). She eventually finds out both of these overly-forward guys have dirty secrets and feels justified in her contentment to stay single. I was quite happy to find that Cytherea has her head on straight enough to initially steer clear of these guys. She wisely heeds the advice that her father gives at the beginning of the book: “don't love too blindly: blindly you will love if you love at all, but a little care is still possible to a well-disciplined heart.” It’s too bad we can’t all learn from the mistakes of others as well as Cytherea has. “Scheme to marry? I'd rather scheme to die!” she says. Yet, she has her own lessons to learn.
Unfortunately, because of her brother’s failing health, she eventually finds herself pressured to marry to avoid sending her brother to a county hospital. Oh the horror. I found it very infuriating that the brother insisted that his sister marry for money when he knew it would cause her a life of sadness simply because he didn’t want to take the chance he might lose a limb at the county hospital. I can’t imagine asking someone to sacrifice the happiness of their entire life for the sake of my limb. But that’s what brothers are for, right?
The last part of the book is fast-paced as you try to determine if your suspicions are correct about the dark secrets various characters may be harboring. There are a few clues along the way. Unfortunately, I read one of the biggest secrets -- one that’s only revealed in the last few pages -- in a synopsis for this book somewhere online. In a way, it was interesting to read the book through that lens, but I would have rather not have had it spoiled for me. Still, that was not the most surprising of gothically delectable revelations.
I think that my favorite quote in the book is from a man who is doomed to imminent death. He says, “I am now about to enter on my normal condition. For people are almost always in their graves. When we survey the long race of men, it is strange and still more strange to find that they are mainly dead men, who have scarcely ever been otherwise.” I can’t seem to forget this statement in the few days since I read it. It’s caused myself to marvel daily that I’m alive now in the whole history of the universe. That statement, like Carl Sagan’s “Cosmic Calendar”, reveals so much of how infinitesimal man’s existence is in the universe.
Hardy has a way of taking situations and twisting them to the breaking point in his plots. His characters are interconnected in such deliciously complicated ways. But so much of it is bound up in the laws or in the societal expectations of the time. It’s like how we read a book from a couple of decades ago and think how everything would be far less complicated with a cell phone. With Hardy, everything would be far less complicated if the characters weren’t worried about what the Joneses thought or if they could easily get a divorce without social ostracism.
One curious scene in the book appears to be homoerotic in nature. In general, Hardy’s later books expose the failings of Victorian cultural norms and the complications that they create for people. But this seems to be a different beast altogether. Either the scene is written innocently or its written as a bit of Victorian spite. I can’t seem to find anything on the subject other than that, when Queen Victoria was asked why there weren’t any laws against female homosexuality, she replied that women don’t do that sort of thing. So, was Hardy trying to say that they indeed did or was he really just writing an innocent scene? I would posit that it’s the former since he was made to change the scene in later editions to call the affections something akin to “motherly love”. I don’t buy it. If the Queen thinks that lesbianism doesn’t exist, you can write about it to your heart’s content with impunity.
I can very well see how this book helped to launch Hardy’s future success. It’s a close second so far among the books of his I’ve read (my favorite so far being Two on a Tower). I highly suggest it for anyone interested in reading something by Hardy, especially if they like a book that’s more on the dark side.
After the untimely deaths of their parents, two young adults go out into the world together to try to fend for themselves. The brother tries to find a job related to his architectural studies while the sister, Cytherea, looks for a position as a lady’s maid. As fate would have it, Cytherea accepts a position in the home of a lady whose past is closely connected to that of Cytherea’s family.
Two men vie for Cytherea’s attention, but she finds herself not trusting either of them. The first tries to kiss her in a row boat and the second creeps her out by drawing her into his house during a thunderstorm and playing his organ for her. No, this is not a euphemism. And, no, he doesn’t actually know how to play an organ (this sounds strangely like a bad date I once had). She eventually finds out both of these overly-forward guys have dirty secrets and feels justified in her contentment to stay single. I was quite happy to find that Cytherea has her head on straight enough to initially steer clear of these guys. She wisely heeds the advice that her father gives at the beginning of the book: “don't love too blindly: blindly you will love if you love at all, but a little care is still possible to a well-disciplined heart.” It’s too bad we can’t all learn from the mistakes of others as well as Cytherea has. “Scheme to marry? I'd rather scheme to die!” she says. Yet, she has her own lessons to learn.
Unfortunately, because of her brother’s failing health, she eventually finds herself pressured to marry to avoid sending her brother to a county hospital. Oh the horror. I found it very infuriating that the brother insisted that his sister marry for money when he knew it would cause her a life of sadness simply because he didn’t want to take the chance he might lose a limb at the county hospital. I can’t imagine asking someone to sacrifice the happiness of their entire life for the sake of my limb. But that’s what brothers are for, right?
The last part of the book is fast-paced as you try to determine if your suspicions are correct about the dark secrets various characters may be harboring. There are a few clues along the way. Unfortunately, I read one of the biggest secrets -- one that’s only revealed in the last few pages -- in a synopsis for this book somewhere online. In a way, it was interesting to read the book through that lens, but I would have rather not have had it spoiled for me. Still, that was not the most surprising of gothically delectable revelations.
I think that my favorite quote in the book is from a man who is doomed to imminent death. He says, “I am now about to enter on my normal condition. For people are almost always in their graves. When we survey the long race of men, it is strange and still more strange to find that they are mainly dead men, who have scarcely ever been otherwise.” I can’t seem to forget this statement in the few days since I read it. It’s caused myself to marvel daily that I’m alive now in the whole history of the universe. That statement, like Carl Sagan’s “Cosmic Calendar”, reveals so much of how infinitesimal man’s existence is in the universe.
Hardy has a way of taking situations and twisting them to the breaking point in his plots. His characters are interconnected in such deliciously complicated ways. But so much of it is bound up in the laws or in the societal expectations of the time. It’s like how we read a book from a couple of decades ago and think how everything would be far less complicated with a cell phone. With Hardy, everything would be far less complicated if the characters weren’t worried about what the Joneses thought or if they could easily get a divorce without social ostracism.
One curious scene in the book appears to be homoerotic in nature. In general, Hardy’s later books expose the failings of Victorian cultural norms and the complications that they create for people. But this seems to be a different beast altogether. Either the scene is written innocently or its written as a bit of Victorian spite. I can’t seem to find anything on the subject other than that, when Queen Victoria was asked why there weren’t any laws against female homosexuality, she replied that women don’t do that sort of thing. So, was Hardy trying to say that they indeed did or was he really just writing an innocent scene? I would posit that it’s the former since he was made to change the scene in later editions to call the affections something akin to “motherly love”. I don’t buy it. If the Queen thinks that lesbianism doesn’t exist, you can write about it to your heart’s content with impunity.
I can very well see how this book helped to launch Hardy’s future success. It’s a close second so far among the books of his I’ve read (my favorite so far being Two on a Tower). I highly suggest it for anyone interested in reading something by Hardy, especially if they like a book that’s more on the dark side.
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