Many giants of literature originate from England; Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, the Brontës, and Austen to which most people would willingly add the name Thomas Hardy. Far From The Madding Crowd, Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, and The Mayor Of Casterbridge are but three of his literary masterpieces. But let us add to this his short stories. They are often overlooked as being the poor, under-developed relative of a greater work, but from writers of the caliber of Hardy this is just not so. He picks stories and creates characters that drive, meld, and create pages that in their numerically shorter length are in fact the perfect length.
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"Read for the nth time last October... I never get tired of this book. It still comes across as sensational and action-packed - it must have seemed quite shocking when first published. " — Jane (5 out of 5 stars)
"Read for the nth time last October... I never get tired of this book. It still comes across as sensational and action-packed - it must have seemed quite shocking when first published. "
" Some of Hardy's best short stories. "
" This was a gag for Dave's broken wrist but turned out to my cup of tea - I love Hardy! "
" I was made to read these at school and though they aren't bad stories they are very slow and tedious. "
" I really enjoyed it! Though I ended up not liking Angel in the end. "
" I went through a phase of reading anything I could get my hands on by Thomas Hardy (I was 17!). I still love this book! "
" A lot of times when I have violent hatred for a novel I end up reading it again and loving it. I anticipate that this will be one such novel, but boy howdy did T. Hardy piss me off as a writer. "
" This is my all time favourite book. It stayed with me for days after I had finished reading it. "
" Supposedly Hardy's best book. Certainly the most touching and heart-wrenching. "
" This took me a while to get through. Tess I found to be a very frustrating character. I discussed it with a friend who studied this book for a class and she enjoyed it more than me. Maybe I needed to have a class that studied this book to really get more out of it..... "
" Good in passages but it goes on a bit. "
" What can I say? It's Hardy's masterpiece! "
" I would kill Angel if I could. Hate hate hate hate HATE him! To death! Give me a knife someone! "
" One of the worst books I've ever read - a moralistic tale full of cliched characters that each stand for a different moral virtue (or sin.) There is nothing of substance to latch on to in the plot in order to feel invested in the story. "
" This is the absolute best classic I have ever read. I am a senior in college as an english major and I plan on using this book as my thesis. "
" Make a mistake and you're screwed. "
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), English poet, dramatist, and novelist, was born on the Egdon Heath in Dorset. He studied in Dorchester and apprenticed to an architect before leaving for London, where he began to write. Unable to find a public for his poetry, which idealized the rural life, he turned to the novel and met with success as well as controversy. The strong public reaction against some of his darker themes turned him back to writing verse. Today several of his novels are considered masterpieces of tragedy.
Ghizela Rowe has worked in broadcast television for thirty years on a broad range of programming. Her specialization is in music. She helps run the Copyright Group, an extensive collection of master recording rights, and has lent her voice to many audiobooks, including The Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Gaskell: The Short Stories, and The Romantics: An Introduction.
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