Bøger af Thomas Hardy

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), subtitled "The Life and Death of a Man of Character", is a novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rural England. Hardy began writing the book in 1884 and wrote the last page on 17 April 1885. Within the book, he writes that the events took place "before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span". Literary critic Dale Kramer sees it as being set somewhat later-in the late 1840s, corresponding to Hardy's youth in Dorchester. PLOT: At a country fair near Casterbridge, Wessex, a young hay-trusser named Michael Henchard gets drunk on rum-laced furmity and argues with his wife, Susan. He decides to auction off his wife and baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, Mr. Newson, for five guineas. Sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family. When he realises that his wife and daughter are gone, he swears not to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far (21).Eighteen years later, Henchard is now a successful grain merchant and Mayor of Casterbridge, known for his staunch sobriety. Henchard has avoided explaining the circumstances of the "loss" of his wife, allowing people to assume he is a widower. On a visit to Jersey on business, Henchard falls in love with Lucette Le Sueur, who nurses him back to health after an illness. Although Henchard never tells Lucetta exactly how he "lost" his wife, he does tell her he has a wife who is probably dead, but who may return. Besotted, Lucetta develops a relationship with him despite the risk. The book implies that they have a sexual relationship, [2] and Lucetta's reputation is ruined. Henchard returns to Casterbridge, leaving Lucetta to face the social consequences of their fling. To rejoin polite society Lucetta would have to marry him, although Henchard is already technically married. Yet just as Henchard is about to send for Lucetta, Susan unexpectedly appears in Casterbridge with her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane. Newson appears to have been lost at sea, and without means to earn an income Susan is looking to Henchard again. Susan believed for a long time that her "marriage" to Newson was perfectly legitimate. Only recently, just before Newson's disappearance, had Susan begun to question whether or not she was still legally married to Henchard. Just as Susan and Elizabeth-Jane arrive in town, a Scotsman, Donald Farfrae, is passing through on his way to America. He has experience as a grain and corn merchant, and is on the cutting edge of agricultural science. He befriends Henchard and helps him out of a bad financial situation by giving him some timely advice. Henchard persuades him to stay and offers him a job as his corn factor, rudely dismissing a man named Jopp to whom he had already offered the job. Hiring Farfrae is a stroke of business genius for Henchard, who, although hardworking, is not well-educated..... Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Works: The Trumpet Major; Volume 7 Of Works; Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy Harper & brothers, 1899

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Works, Volume 14; Works; Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy Harper, 1905

Thomas Hardy was born in June, 1840, and died in January, 1928. He grew up in Higherbockhampton, Dorset, the son of a stonemason. Trained as an architect he began writing poetry in the 1860s but did not publish his first novel, Desperate Remedies, until 1871. Far from the Madding Crowd, published in 1874, was Hardy's fourth novel. A classic tale of passion and betrayal, it was a literary success, achieving excellent critical reveiws and widespread popularity.

The Dynasts, Part 1: A Drama Of The Napoleonic Wars is a historical play written by the renowned English author Thomas Hardy. The book was first published in 1904 and is the first part of a three-part series. The play is set during the Napoleonic Wars and follows the lives of several historical figures, including Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, and other military leaders.The play is divided into three acts and features a large cast of characters, both real and fictional. It is written in verse and includes both dialogue and soliloquies. The play is known for its vivid descriptions of the battles and events of the Napoleonic Wars, as well as its exploration of the human experience during times of war.The Dynasts, Part 1: A Drama Of The Napoleonic Wars is a work of historical fiction that blends fact and fiction to create a compelling narrative of one of the most significant periods in European history. It is a must-read for fans of historical fiction, as well as those interested in the Napoleonic Wars and the works of Thomas Hardy.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

A Changed Man is the tale of a handsome young hussar captain, who resigns his commission to become a preacher, taking a living in a small poor parish. His new young wife, having always been attracted to the glory and pageantry of the military is horrified, decides to leave her husband for another soldier, only things don't end quite as she would have imagined...

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A collection of Victorian short stories about marriage written by five well-known authors: George Augustus Moore (1852-1933), Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901) and Henry James (1843-1916).

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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) Novelista, cuentista y poeta. Fue uno de los mejores y más prolíficos escritores ingleses del siglo XIX. La prosa de sus novelas es naturalista, clásica, y no obstante el poder de lo extraño brota a pesar del control que el autor ejerció sobre las palabras. Sus personajes son gobernados por las fuerzas férreas de la naturaleza y por los mecanismos, no menos férreos, de la sociedad victoriana. El mundo de Hardy fue dirigido por el determinismo biológico y físico: el azar y la voluntad humana no existían para él. Creó un universo severo. Sin embargo, este mundo dominado por fuerzas oscuras, al ser enmarcado en ambientes pastoriles en los que el paisaje es parte de la ficción, se vuelve finalmente un universo perturbador pero lírico donde la gente pobre del campo se define con ternura y humor. Actualmente su poesía es muy apreciada, tanto por su prosaísmo refinado y objetivo como por la ironía y naturalidad melancólica. Se lo considera un precursor de muchos poetas contemporáneos como Ph. Larkin y R. Graves. W. H. Auden, por ejemplo, aseveró en un ensayo que la poesía de Hardy había sido su mayor influencia. Incluso se ha contrapuesto su manera de hacer poesía a la de E. Pound, T. S. Eliot y otros vanguardistas, porque se estima que no necesitó de experimentalismos agudos y dislocaciones de la conciencia para dibujar la realidad: su mente ya era escéptica y metafísica por naturaleza.

在圣乔利奥 的科沃尔 一个偏远海域教区的校长的女儿，哈迪 在其第一任妻子爱玛 求爱之初就开始了一对蓝眼睛。 蓝眼睛，高昂的精神，小精灵 对外面的世界几乎没有经验，并且与两个男人纠缠不清：男孩气的建筑师斯蒂芬-史密斯 和年龄较大的文学家亨利-奈特。 以前的朋友成为竞争对手，而 面临痛苦的选择。成对的蓝眼睛 是在哈代一生中的关键时刻撰写的，比他的小说更直接地表达了使他成为作家的事件和社会力量。 的困境反映了自己对这部小说做出的艰难决定：追求建筑专业（他成立的地方）或文学专业（他还没有出名）。 此更新的版本包含新的介绍，参考书目和年表。

Wessex Tales is an 1888 collection of tales written by English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.In the various short stories, Hardy writes of the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions, the use grammar as a diluted form of thought, the disparities created by the role of class status in determining societal rank, the stance of women in society and the severity of even minor diseases causing the rapid onset of fatal symptoms prior to the introduction of sufficient medicinal practices. A focal point of all the short stories is that of social constraints acting to diminish one's contentment in life, necessitating unwanted marriages, repression of true emotion and succumbing to melancholia due to constriction within the confines of 19th century perceived normalcy.Published in 1888, Wessex Tales contained five stories ("The Three Strangers", "The Withered Arm", "Fellow-Townsmen", "Interlopers at the Knap", and "The Distracted Preacher") all published first in periodicals. For the 1896 reprinting, Hardy added "An Imaginative Woman," but in 1912 moved this to another collection, Life's Little Ironies, while at the same time transferring two stories-"A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four" and "The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion"-from Life's Little Ironies to Wessex Tales Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.[1] Charles Dickens was another important influence.[2][page needed] Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy's poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy's poetry had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Philip Larkin.Hardy's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher. He then showed it to his mentor and friend, the Victorian poet and novelist, George Meredith, who felt that The Poor Man and the Lady would be too politically controversial and might damage Hardy's ability to publish in the future. So Hardy followed his advice and he did not try further to publish it. Later, he destroyed the manuscript. After he abandoned his first novel, Hardy wrote two new ones that he hoped would have more commercial appeal, Desperate Remedies (1871) and Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), both of which were published anonymously. In 1873 A Pair of Blue Eyes, a novel drawing on Hardy's courtship of his first wife, was published under his own name. The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialised version of this story (which was published in Tinsley's Magazine between September 1872 and July 1873) in which Henry Knight, one of the protagonists, is left literally hanging off a cliff....

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin. Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex; initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Hardy's Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England. Two of his novels, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, were listed in the top 50 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Two on a Tower (1882) is a novel by English author Thomas Hardy, classified by him as a romance and fantasy and now regarded as one of his minor works. The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, set in a parallel version of late Victorian Dorset.Hardy placed an epigraph at the beginning of this book. The epigraph is from a Richard Crashaw poem, Love's Horoscope. It reads: "Ah, my heart her eyes and she Have taught thee new astrology. Howe'er Love's native hours were set, Whatever starry synod met, 'Tis in the mercy of her eye, If poor Love shall live or die." Plot--Two On A Tower is a tale of star-crossed love in which Hardy sets the emotional lives of his two lovers against the background of the stellar universe. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is ten years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart. This is Hardy's most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide and the fullest expression of his fascination with science and astronomy. Background--In the 1895 preface Hardy wrote, "The scene of the action was suggested by two real spots in the part of the country specified, each of which has a column standing upon it. Certain surrounding peculiarities have been imported into the narrative from both sites." Wimborne was the location of the village of "Warborne", and Charborough House was the location of the "Welland House" in Two on a Tower. Hardy's intention, in his own words, was to "set the emotional history of two infinitesimal lives against the stupendous background of the stellar universe". Criticism--Because the book defied the social norms of the day, upon release the book was called shocking, repulsive, and one critic called it Hardy's "worst yet."[4] Hardy's biographer, Claire Tomalin, says Hardy was "writing for serialization, which drove him to pack in far too much plot," and he wrote too fast "without time to think or reconsider." Hardy wrote in a letter to Edmund Gosse on 10 Dec 1882, "I get most extraordinary criticisms of T. on a T. Eminent critics write & tell me in private that it is the most original thing I have done...while other eminent critics (I wonder if they are the same) print the most cutting rebukes you can conceive-show me (to my amazement) that I am quite an immoral person......

The Woodlanders is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was serialised from May 1886 to April 1887 in Macmillan's Magazine and published in three volumes in 1887.It is one of his series of Wessex novels. The story takes place in a small woodland village called Little Hintock, and concerns the efforts of an honest woodsman, Giles Winterborne, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace Melbury. Although they have been informally betrothed for some time, her father has made financial sacrifices to give his adored only child a superior education and no longer considers Giles good enough for her. When the new doctor - a well-born and handsome young man named Edgar Fitzpiers - takes an interest in Grace, her father does all he can to make Grace forget Giles, and to encourage what he sees as a brilliant match. Grace has misgivings prior to the marriage as she sees a village woman (Suke Damson) coming out of his cottage very early in the morning and suspects he has been sleeping with her. She tells her father that she does not want to go on with the marriage and he becomes very angry. Later Fitzpiers tells her Suke has been to visit him because she was in agony from toothache and he extracted a molar. Grace clutches at this explanation - in fact Fitzpiers has started an affair with Suke some weeks previously. After the honeymoon, the couple take up residence in an unused wing of Melbury's house. Soon, however, Fitzpiers begins an affair with a rich widow named Mrs. Charmond, which Grace and her father discover. Grace finds out by chance that Suke Damson has a full set of teeth and realises that Fitzpiers lied to her. The couple become progressively more estranged and Fitzpiers is assaulted by his father-in-law after he accidentally reveals his true character to him. Both Suke Damson and Mrs Charmond turn up at Grace's house demanding to know whether Fitzpiers is all right - Grace addresses them both sarcastically as "Wives -all". Fitzpiers later deserts Grace and goes to the Continent with Mrs Charmond. Grace realises that that she has only ever really loved Giles but as there is no possibity of divorce feels that her love seems hopeless.Melbury is told by a former legal clerk down on his luck that the law was changed in the previous year (making the setting of the action 1858) and divorce is now possible. He encourages Giles to resume his courtship of Grace. It later becomes apparent, however, that Fitzpiers' adultery is not sufficient for Grace to be entitled to a divorce. When Fitzpiers quarrels with Mrs. Charmond and returns to Little Hintock to try to reconcile with his wife, she flees the house and turns to Giles for help. He is still convalescing from a dangerous illness, but nobly allows her to sleep in his hut during stormy weather, whilst he insists on sleeping outside. As a result, he dies. Grace later allows herself to be won back to the (at least temporarily) repentant Fitzpiers, thus sealing her fate as the wife of an unworthy man. This is after Suke's husband Timothy Tangs has set a man trap to try to crush Fitzpiers' leg but it only tears Grace's skirt. No one is left to mourn Giles except a courageous peasant girl named Marty South, who has always loved him. Marty is a plain girl whose only attribute is her beautiful hair. She is persuaded to sell this at the start of the story to a barber who is procuring it for Mrs Charmond, after Marty realises that Giles loves Grace and not her. She precipitates the final quarrell between Fitzpiers and Mrs Charmond by writing to Fitzpiers and telling him of the origin of most of Mrs Charmond's hair.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Under the Greenwood Tree is a novel written by author Thomas Hardy. This popular late 19th century novel is about the activities of a group of musicians, including Dick Dewy, who becomes romantically entangled with love interest, Fancy Day. Dewy isn't aware that his relationship is based on deception, as she is also being courted by another. This novel is also popular due to its illustration of Victorian era technologies. Under the Greenwood Tree is highly recommended for those who enjoy the writings of Thomas Hardy, and also for those discovering his works for the first time.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Works, Volume 17; Works; Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy Harper, 1905

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Tess deystvitel'no proiskhodit iz drevnego roda d'Erbervilley, no na ee dolyu ne prikhoditsya velichie i slava mogushchestvennykh predkov, lish' bremya ikh proklyatiya. U nee net ni bogatstva, ni zemel', ni dazhe titula - velichie roda ugaslo v nezapamyatnye vremena, no po-prezhnemu zhivy prizraki, naselyayushchie strashnye legendy, i bolee chem zhivy chudovishcha, naselyayushchie podsoznanie geroev romana. Esli sud'ba umnitsy i krasavitsy Tess - nakazanie za smertnye grekhi ee predkov, to net nikogo besserdechnee sud'by - Ananke, ved' kto, kak ne Tess trudilsya s samogo yunogo vozrasta, kto vyrastil i vospital oravu bratishek i sestrenok? I vse zhe ne tol'ko sud'boy predopredeleny stradaniya geroini: istinnye prichiny ee tragedii kroyutsya v predrassudkakh i zhestokosti viktorianskogo obshchestva, gotovogo rastoptat' cheloveka za edinstvennuyu oshibku; sposobnogo opravdat' muzhchinu, no ne opravdyvayushchego zhenshchinu. A znachit, somnitel'ny detali, kotorye tak nastoychivo podcherkivaet Khardi, vselyaya v chitatelya suevernyy uzhas, - nichego by ne izmenilos', ne bud' predki Tess stol' mogushchestvenny i porochny. Sud obshchestva poroy byvaet strashnee proklyatiya. Lyubovnyy treugol'nik polozhen v osnovu romana, no nastoyashchey lyubvi v nem net. Ee zamenyayut naivnoe lyubopytstvo, neumerennaya strast' i bessmyslennoe preklonenie; chuvstva geroev chrezmerny i temny, v nikh net ni grana gotovnosti prinyat' i prostit', svoystvennykh istinnoy lyubvi. S torzhestvennym otchayaniem prinosya nenuzhnye zhertvy, personazhi romana ne razryvayut, a lish' suzhayut krug bezyskhodnosti. Oni molchat, prinimaya kazhushcheesya im spravedlivym, togda, kogda nuzhnye slova smogli by vse izmenit'; oni sklonyayutsya pered obstoyatel'stvami, kogda nuzhno deystvovat', deystvuya zhe, lish' prichinyayut bol' sebe i drugim. Navernoe, vo vse vremena vstrechayutsya lyudi, pokhozhie na glavnuyu geroinyu. Slishkom naivnye, slishkom chistye, ne umeyushchie pritvoryat'sya. Oni slishkom blagorodny dlya sushchestvovaniya, opredelyaemogo zakonami evolyutsii, i tem samym gubyat sebya sami. Mir, narisovannyy Tomasom Khardi, strashen, i ocharovatel'nye peyzazhi angliyskoy provintsii, opisannye tak talantlivo, ne delayut ego privlekatel'nee. Zdes' lyudi - lish' poteryavshiesya deti, a abstraktnye printsipy, ustoyavshiesya normy povedeniya vazhnee chelovecheskikh dush. Zdes' vlyublennye skryvayutsya ot lyudey, skitayutsya po lesam, chtoby naslazhdat'sya svoim korotkim schast'yem i ne dumat' o budushchem, o neizbezhnoy rasplate... Tyazhelaya zhizn', rabota bez kontsa i kraya, nesbytochnaya mechta o blagopoluchii i zhizni v mire, lyubvi i soglasii. Zatem, kak eto obychno byvaet, rok v vide vezdesushchey politsii nastigaet devushku... Kak eto strashno - i kak pokhozhe na deystvitel'nost'!

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.The novel is set in impoverished rural England, Thomas Hardy's fictional Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s. Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated peasants; however, John is given the impression by Parson Tringham that he may have noble blood, since "Durbeyfield" is a corruption of "D'Urberville", the surname of a noble Norman family, then extinct. The news immediately goes to John's head.

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), subtitled "The Life and Death of a Man of Character", is a novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rural England. Hardy began writing the book in 1884 and wrote the last page on 17 April 1885. Within the book, he writes that the events took place "before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span". Literary critic Dale Kramer sees it as being set somewhat later-in the late 1840s, corresponding to Hardy's youth in Dorchester

The Return of the Native is Thomas Hardy's sixth published novel. It first appeared in the serial Belgravia, a publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented in twelve monthly instalments from January to December of 1878. Due to the novel's controversial themes, Hardy had some difficulty finding a publisher; reviews, however, though somewhat mixed, were generally positive. In the twentieth century, Return of the Native became one of Hardy's most popular novels

Far from the Madding Crowd is a novel by 19th century English novelist Thomas Hardy, published in 1874. The title is apt, as the life of the book's heroine, Bathsheba Everdene, living in the quiet rural village of Weatherbury is indeed disrupted by the "madding crowd". After shunning the first man to love her, the shepherd Gabriel Oak, she is courted by two others: the lonely and repressed farmer Boldwood, and the charming but faithless Sergeant Troy. The role of fate is clearly established, with each twist and turn in the book being more luck than the choice of one of the characters. The book is widely seen as Hardy's first masterpiece

It may, I think, claim at least a tolerable fidelity to the facts of its date as they are give in ordinary records. Whenever any evidence of the words really spoken or written by the characters in their various situations was attainable, as close a paraphrase has been aimed at as was compatible with the form chosen. And in all cases outside the oral tradition, accessible scenery, and existing relics, my indebtedness for detail to the abundant pages of the historian, the biographer, and the journalist, English and Foreign, has been, of course, continuous. It was thought proper to introduce, as supernatural spectators of the terrestrial action, certain impersonated abstractions, or Intelligences, called Spirits. They are intended to be taken by the reader for what they may be worth as contrivances of the fancy merely. Their doctrines are but tentative, and are advanced with little eye to a systematized philosophy warranted to lift "the burthen of the mystery" of this unintelligible world. The chief thing hoped for them is that they and their utterances may have dramatic plausibility enough to procure for them, in the words of Coleridge, "that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith.

The Three Strangers is a short story by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1883. The story is set in rural England and follows the events of a winter evening when three strangers arrive at a small farmhouse seeking shelter from the storm. The strangers are a young man, a middle-aged man, and an old man, each with their own mysterious past and reasons for seeking refuge. The farmer and his wife, who are hosting a party that evening, welcome the strangers and offer them food and drink. As the night progresses, the guests become more and more curious about the strangers and their stories, leading to unexpected revelations and a dramatic twist ending. The Three Strangers explores themes of hospitality, trust, and the consequences of past actions. It is a classic example of Hardy's skillful storytelling and his ability to capture the essence of rural life in Victorian England.A dancing-party was the alternative; but this, while avoiding the foregoing objection on the score of good drink, had a counterbalancing disadvantage in the matter of good victuals, the ravenous appetites engendered by the exercise causing immense havoc in the buttery. Shepherdess Fennel fell back upon the intermediate plan of mingling short dances with short periods of talk and singing, so as to hinder any ungovernable rage in either. But this scheme was entirely confined to her own gentle mind: the shepherd himself was in the mood to exhibit the most reckless phases of hospitality.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.