Desperate Remedies

by Thomas Hardy

Overview

Described by Hardy as a tale of "mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity", his first published novel violated the literary decorum of its day with blackmail, murder, and romance. It relates the story of Cytherea, a maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe, and the man she loves, Edward Springrove. Upon discovering that Edward is already engaged, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward, Manston. Published anonymously in 1871, Desperate Remedies already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781731701916
Publisher:	Simon & Brown
Publication date:	10/30/2018
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

Richard Nemesvari is Professor of English and Dean of Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. He edited Thomas Hardy's novel The Trumpet-Major and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. He has written extensively on Victorian fiction, and his monograph Thomas Hardy, Sensationalism, and the Melodramatic Mode was published in 2011. He is a Vice-President of the Thomas Hardy Association, a member of the Advisory Board for the Wilkie Collins Journal, and General Editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy.

Date of Birth:

June 2, 1840

Date of Death:

January 11, 1928

Place of Birth:

Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, England

Place of Death:

Max Gate, Dorchester, England

Education:

Served as apprentice to architect James Hicks

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; General editor's preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction; Desperate Remedies; Editorial emendations; List of variants - accidentals; End-of-line word division; Appendix A. Hardy's prefatory notes; Appendix B. Frontispieces; Appendix C. Description of principal texts; Explanatory notes.

Editorial Reviews

Hardy launched his writing career with this 1871 novel, which actually was published anonymously. Its sexuality, including lesbianism, was apparently too much of a Victorian eyebrow-raiser for him to attach his name. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Anna Bentinck valiantly works to keep Thomas Hardy's early story of love and deception consistently compelling. An unconventional narrator, Bentinck takes pauses in unusual places, injecting a note of spontaneity into Hardy's occasionally hard-going descriptive passages. Hardy's story is highly character driven, and while Bentinck's style doesn't quite make the most of the variation in character, her dignified portrayal of each of the cast proves empathetic and humanizing, thereby grounding the drama in realistic emotion. Though she occasionally resorts to slightly hammy accents, her sensitivity to the mental state of the characters is charming and engaging, and drives the listener through the stodgier sections of Hardy's prose. This proves all the more rewarding once the plot picks up and the book itself becomes irresistibly interesting. Z.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

Anna Bentinck valiantly works to keep Thomas Hardy's early story of love and deception consistently compelling. An unconventional narrator, Bentinck takes pauses in unusual places, injecting a note of spontaneity into Hardy's occasionally hard-going descriptive passages. Hardy's story is highly character driven, and while Bentinck's style doesn't quite make the most of the variation in character, her dignified portrayal of each of the cast proves empathetic and humanizing, thereby grounding the drama in realistic emotion. Though she occasionally resorts to slightly hammy accents, her sensitivity to the mental state of the characters is charming and engaging, and drives the listener through the stodgier sections of Hardy's prose. This proves all the more rewarding once the plot picks up and the book itself becomes irresistibly interesting. Z.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile