A Laodicean

A Story of To-day

By: Thomas Hardy

Narrated by: Anna Bentinck

Subtitled 'A Story of To-day', A Laodicean occupies a unique place in the Thomas Hardy canon. Departing from pre-industrial Wessex, Hardy brings his themes of social constraint, fate, chance and miscommunication to the very modern world of the 1880s - complete with falsified telegraphs, fake photographs, and perilous train tracks. The story follows the life of Paula Power, heiress of her late father's railroad fortune and the new owner of the medieval Castle Stancy. With the castle in need of restoration, Paula employs architect George Somerset, who soon falls in love with her. However, Paula's dreams of nobility draw her to another suitor, Captain de Stancy, who is aided by his villainous son, William Dare.

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Not my favorite of Hardee’s novels, but still good

This novel was completed in 1881 and it juxtaposes the old England with the emergence of the new and modern for that time England. Paula Powers is the daughter and Iris of a famous mechanical engineer who built the nearby railroad tunnel. She lives in Distancia castle, which was once owned by a wealthy and long established family who is now in decline. George Somerset, as the architect who is commissioned to rebuild the castle and he falls in love with Paula power but then George Distancia also loves Paula. There is a love triangle in the story, but it is also Thomas Hardy showing how England was changing at that time from so-called medievalism to the modern Victorian era of the time.

Uncharacteristic

Anna Bentinck gives a delightful performance of this unusual novel by Thomas Hardy. I say unusual because the book, though tinged at times with sadness and disappointment, ends more or less happily. I had to keep checking the book details to make sure I wasn’t reading something by George Eliot or even Anthony Trollope instead. The latter part of the book includes a romantic chase sequence worthy of Bridget Jones.

I enjoyed it. I had (as usual) several books going at the same time, but I kept setting others aside to get back to this one.