Showing results by author "Thomas Hardy" in All Categories

A collection of the greatest war poetry ever written, read by some of the 20th century’s most renowned actors. Tragedy, war and humanity are played out in these timeless readings of poetry written about, or on, the battlefield.

A 19th century novel that defied the repressive moral conventions of Victorian England. Young Tess Durbeyfield comes from an impoverished home. Her father, desperate to alleviate the family's financial plight, presses his daughter into work for the wealthy D'Urbervilles. But in doing so, Tess meets the manipulative Alec, who forces himself upon her. And though Tess later meets a kinder man who proposes marriage, her salvation is jeopardized when she reveals to him her troubled past.

Far from the Madding Crowd is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel. It centers on the lives of five characters: Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdene, Mr Boldwood, Sgt. Troy, and Fanny Robin. The plot involves love, loyalty, death, and betrayal, and all this is delivered to us in Hardy's most eloquent prose. The images of character and nature are painted for our mind's eye with sublime style.

Released in 1896, the story centers around young Cytherea Graye, who becomes a servant to Miss Auclyffe, a woman with a troubled past. There, she encounters Aeneas Manston, the incredibly handsome and charming steward of Miss Auclyffe. The anti-hero, Aeneas Manston, as physically alluring as he is evil, fascinates the innocent Cytherea though she is in love with another man.

A wonderfully evocative tale of the courtship of Fancy Day, newly arrived schoolmistress, by Dick Dewy, carrier of goods, during the four seasons of one year in Wessex. Most of Hardy’s work had tragedy woven into the narrative but ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ is full of whimsy and good humour. The story is not without its serious comment, however, as Hardy reflects on class division and the disappearance of heritage in the rural community.

A great collection of short stories based on the theme of love. Stories by famous writers including Katherine Mansfield and Oscar Wilde.

Far from the Madding Crowd was Hardy's fourth novel, gaining significant popularity and critical attention. It tells of Gabriel, an up-and-coming shepherd, who falls in love with a proud and vain young beauty, Bathsheba, who refuses his offer of marriage as she values her independence too much.

> Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak and his love for and pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene, whose wayward nature leads her to both tragedy and true love. It tells of the dashing Sergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was "...The past was yesterday; never, the day after." And lastly, of the introverted and reclusive gentleman farmer, Mr Boldwood.

His last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure provoked such widespread and bitter attacks that Hardy claimed it caused him to stop writing novels. The primary causes of the uproar involved Hardy’s frank treatment of sexual themes and his unconventional portrayal of the pillars of Victorian society: the British university system, marriage, and religion. Today, many consider this to be Hardy’s finest work.

"Tess of the d’Urbervilles" (1891) is a novel by Thomas Hardy. Tess Durbeyfield is the oldest child of John and Joan, uneducated peasants living in an impoverished rural village in Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s. One day, her father is given the hint that they may have noble blood and that they are successors of a noble Norman family D'Urberville. Tess' fortune is changed after one accident and she decides to visit Mrs. D'Urberville, a rich widow who lives in the nearby town, and "claim kin".

Drunk on rum at a country fair, Henchard sells his wife to a sailor for five guineas. Unable to find them and overcome with guilt and remorse he vows to be teetotal for 21 years. Many years later his wife seeks him out in Casterbridge, where he has gained both wealth and the well respected position of mayor.

Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy's second novel, was published in 1872 and became the first of his great series of Wessex novels. The book, subtitled A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, tells the endearing tale of a group of church musicians who accompany the hymns at the local Mellstock parish choir and we follow the fortunes of one of its member, Dick Dewy, who falls in love with the new school mistress, Fancy Day.

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 near Dorchester in that part of England he called Wessex. With stories sometimes from his own imagination and sometimes from local tradition, Hardy's work, like Dickens and Trollope, creates a strong sense of mood and location. Hardy hoped to be remembered for his poetry, but ours is not a poetic age. Thus his claim to a new generation of readers rests on his prose. There are great similarities between his era, a time of challenge, and our own.

January - the first month of the year in the Gregorian calendar ushers in the New Year. the cold and bleak landscape of winter nevertheless provides a rich background for our esteemed poets, such as Byron, Longfellow, Cowper, and Dickinson, to offer us their reflections and counterpoints.

A highly unsettling collection of macabre stories in which death and the dead are key themes. Moon’s Gibbet by Egerton Castle, A Strange Goldfield by Guy Boothby, The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy, The Pistol Shot by Alexander Pushkin, The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe, The Dead Hand by Wilkie Collins, The Famous Race between the Hearse and the Steamroller by Sidney Keyes, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, Nine O’Clock by Wilkie Collins, The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin.

In Return of the Native, Clym Yeobright makes a poignant return to Egdon Heath, a remote collection of homes nestled in the haunting beauty of the Wessex moors. Here, he becomes entangled in a complex web of love that includes his cousin, Thomasin Yeobright; the enigmatic innkeeper, Damon Wildeve; the passionate and controversial Eustacia Vye; and the mysterious reddleman, Diggory Venn, whose skin bears the marks of his trade. This novel is quintessential Thomas Hardy, featuring his signature elements the rugged Wessex landscape, a tangle of romantic interests, a fateful wedding, and a ...

A rich and varied collection of classic short stories by British writers: 'Quality' by John Galsworthy, 'The Mark on the Wall' by Virginia Woolf, 'The Horse Dealer’s Daughter' by D. H. Lawrence, 'The Ticking of the Clock' by Louisa Baldwin, 'The Fiddler of the Reels' by Thomas Hardy, 'The Return' by R. Murray Gilchrist, 'Kew Gardens' by Virginia Woolf, 'Seashore Macabre' by Hugh Walpole, 'Satan’s Circus' by Eleanor Smith, 'The Coffin Merchant' by Richard Middleton....

More of the Greatest Mysteries of All Time is the second in a series featuring the finest short story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present. From Thomas Hardy, O. Henry, Jack London, Vincent Starrett and everyone in between, this unique collection, edited by multi-award winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, is a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

Michael Henchard, a young hay trusser, overindulges in rum-laced furmity and quarrels with his wife, Susan. Spurred by alcohol, he decides to auction off his wife and baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, Mr. Newson, for five guineas. Once sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family. When he realizes that his wife and daughter are gone, probably for good, he swears not to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far (21).

Richard Burton, the multi-award winning actor, reads the finest work of Thomas Hardy.