Some poems sound like bells tolling at the turn of an age, and Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush is one of them. Written on the eve of the twentieth century, it stands like a weathered milestone between centuries — one hand resting on the grave of the Victorian world, the other reaching hesitantly toward the … Continue reading The Darkling Thrush
Tag: Hardy
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Some novels are so steeped in fatalism that one half expects the pages to sigh when turned. The Mayor of Casterbridge is such a book - a work that feels as though it were written not with pen and ink, but with plough and sorrow. It’s a tragedy of the English soil, where destiny is … Continue reading The Mayor of Casterbridge
A Pair of Blue Eyes – Or, How Not to Court a Vicar’s Daughter
When I first took up Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes, I braced myself for the usual experience: a young woman falls in love, society disapproves, a man dangles from a cliff, and everyone ends up in a metaphorical ditch by chapter thirty. Hardy’s nothing if not consistent. He’s the grim reaper of literature - … Continue reading A Pair of Blue Eyes – Or, How Not to Court a Vicar’s Daughter
A Symposium of Souls
Every age writes its own dialogues. Plato had Athens, with wine and philosophers reclining in the glow of Socratic irony. I have my own fireside, bottles scattered across an oak table, and a cast of minds whose shadows have shaped my own: Hardy, Wilde, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Jung, Scruton - and, for my own amusement, Hartley … Continue reading A Symposium of Souls
Wessex Tales: Why You Should Never Invite Strangers to Your Baptism: A Hardy Story: The Three Strangers
Right — pull up a chair, or a turnip, or whatever passes for furniture these days — because I’ve just finished The Three Strangers and by Jupiter’s whiskers, what an experience it was. Like trying to shave a goat on a merry-go-round. It's a night so wet it would make Noah look skywards and say, “You what, again?” … Continue reading Wessex Tales: Why You Should Never Invite Strangers to Your Baptism: A Hardy Story: The Three Strangers
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