WESSEX TALES* by THOMAS HARDY.
BACK COVER BLURB: Wars, smuggling, mystery, witchcraft, - the lives of the Wessex villagers may appear quiet and uneventful, but below the surface they are anything but dull.
Solomon Selby's uncle Job nearly comes face to face with Bonaparte one dark night, three mysterious strangers interrupt the festivities of a christening party, and clergyman Richard Stockdale is horrified to discover that the woman he loves is leader of a group of brandy smugglers.
FIRST SENTENCE {THE SEVEN STRANGERS}: Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the long, grassy and furzy downs, coombs or ewe-leases, as they are called according to their kind, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR}: She bared her poor curst arm; and Davies, uncovering the face of the corpse, took Gertrude's hand, and held it so that her arm lay across the dead man's neck, upon a line the colour of an unripe blackberry, which surrounded it.
SOURCE: Off my TBR mountain where it has been for longer than I care to remember.
READ FOR:
MY THOUGHTS: As someone who (a) tends not to enjoy the so-called classics and (b) tends to be left unsatisfied by short Stories I was a bit out of my comfort zone with this 1888 collection of stories by Thomas Hardy. However ...
As is generally the case with collections I found some of the stories more enjoyable than others but overall I found myself enjoying this selection more than I had expected.
Apparently one of the 'easier' introductions to newcomers of Hardy's stories such as myself. I don't know if it was because the more I read the more I grew accustomed to the style and use of unfamiliar words but certainly the more I read the better the stories became.
On the whole, more dark, tragic and, yes, even more romantic than I had expected. It came as something of a surprise that I felt such a range of emotions - one of my complaints about short stories being I rarely find myself becoming emotionally engaged.
Just goes to show that stepping outside of your comfort zone can pay off.
* Please note the book I have linked to is not the edition I read which was a Macmillan publication published in 1976 for the princely sum of 95p. An on-line edition is available here.
BACK COVER BLURB: Wars, smuggling, mystery, witchcraft, - the lives of the Wessex villagers may appear quiet and uneventful, but below the surface they are anything but dull.
Solomon Selby's uncle Job nearly comes face to face with Bonaparte one dark night, three mysterious strangers interrupt the festivities of a christening party, and clergyman Richard Stockdale is horrified to discover that the woman he loves is leader of a group of brandy smugglers.
FIRST SENTENCE {THE SEVEN STRANGERS}: Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the long, grassy and furzy downs, coombs or ewe-leases, as they are called according to their kind, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR}: She bared her poor curst arm; and Davies, uncovering the face of the corpse, took Gertrude's hand, and held it so that her arm lay across the dead man's neck, upon a line the colour of an unripe blackberry, which surrounded it.
SOURCE: Off my TBR mountain where it has been for longer than I care to remember.
READ FOR:
- 2017 Mount TBR challenge (1 book of 24 read)
- What's In A Name? challenge: 'A title with X in it' category (1 book of 6 read).
MY THOUGHTS: As someone who (a) tends not to enjoy the so-called classics and (b) tends to be left unsatisfied by short Stories I was a bit out of my comfort zone with this 1888 collection of stories by Thomas Hardy. However ...
As is generally the case with collections I found some of the stories more enjoyable than others but overall I found myself enjoying this selection more than I had expected.
Apparently one of the 'easier' introductions to newcomers of Hardy's stories such as myself. I don't know if it was because the more I read the more I grew accustomed to the style and use of unfamiliar words but certainly the more I read the better the stories became.
On the whole, more dark, tragic and, yes, even more romantic than I had expected. It came as something of a surprise that I felt such a range of emotions - one of my complaints about short stories being I rarely find myself becoming emotionally engaged.
Just goes to show that stepping outside of your comfort zone can pay off.
* Please note the book I have linked to is not the edition I read which was a Macmillan publication published in 1976 for the princely sum of 95p. An on-line edition is available here.
