Scan barcode
cemoses's review
5.0
It is not great satire. Furthermore, I only got into the book about halfway through it.
However, recently I have been enjoying some old novels that have very strong plots with a lot of twists and turns.
However, recently I have been enjoying some old novels that have very strong plots with a lot of twists and turns.
mx_malaprop's review
1.0
Look, I don't have anything eloquent to say about this book. I just think it fair to warn prospective readers that if Jude the Obscure made you want to resurrect Hardy just so that you could give him a million paper cuts and then toss him into a swimming pool full of lemon juice and make him exist in that state without the mercy of death for at least 50 years, do NOT bother reading this one. Don't let the novels where he was slightly less of a woman-hating sourpuss give you a false sense of security about how this one will turn out.
cgreenstein's review
funny
reflective
slow-paced
I can see why Thomas Hardy's novels have endured. There are some wonderful passages in here.
milesjmoran's review against another edition
4.0
"I have seen marriages where happiness might have been said to be ensured, and they have been all sadness afterwards; and I have seen those in which the prospect as black as night, and they have led on to a time of sweetness and comfort. And I have seen marriages neither joyful nor sorry, that have become either as accident forced them to become, the persons having no voice in it at all. Well, then why should I be afraid to make a plunge when chance is as trustworthy as calculation?"
This is an odd Hardy novel - the majority of the plot takes place in London and France as opposed to his fictional county of Wessex, and it's supposed to be a comedy, its subtitle being 'A Comedy in Chapters'. Thomas, I love you but you're not one for comedy. If there was humour in here, it was cloaked in darkness with a sheen of tragedy. I think in the hands of a writer like Austen, this story could very much become a blatant comedy of errors. Four men vying for the hand of a woman who they think is from the same or at least similar social class as they when in actuality, her family are poor, her father a butler and her brothers workmen. However, Hardy's tone doesn't lend itself to humour, and, if it did stray into that territory, it was done so bleakly that it's practicably indiscernible.
I loved many aspects of this novel. The social commentary was fascinating and I found Hardy's depiction of city life interesting as he mostly writes about rural communities and the working classes. It's not quite as large as Dickens' London, though it did have many glimmering moments that stood out to me. You can feel his disdain for London society bristling on the page, and it's a unique Hardy novel in that sense.
Ethelberta herself is a complex heroine, as most of his female characters are, and I found her plight compelling. I felt greatly for Ethelberta as she struggled to do the right thing and support her family in a way that doesn't cost her societal ostracisation or worsen their circumstances. She truly wants to do the right thing, wants to provide for them, but, as a woman, that's not really something she can successfully do without marrying well, which would potentially reveal her humble background. She attempts to do this independently by publishing her poetry and writing stories that she would perform in live readings yet that doesn't grant her any security and, ultimately, offended the one person who could've made her financially comfortable (her late husband's mother-in-law).
Thomas, if this is your idea of a comedy, I really don't know what to say. You left me feeling quite depressed to be honest...which I don't mind, but don't try to tell me you're writing s comedy. I really enjoyed this book though I would say that there were moments where the story lulled and felt like it was going too slowly despite being one of Hardy's shorter works. If you want to pick this up, don't go into it expecting a laugh a minute - it won't bruise you like Tess of the d'Urbervilles or Jude the Obscure but it'll still hurt.
This is an odd Hardy novel - the majority of the plot takes place in London and France as opposed to his fictional county of Wessex, and it's supposed to be a comedy, its subtitle being 'A Comedy in Chapters'. Thomas, I love you but you're not one for comedy. If there was humour in here, it was cloaked in darkness with a sheen of tragedy. I think in the hands of a writer like Austen, this story could very much become a blatant comedy of errors. Four men vying for the hand of a woman who they think is from the same or at least similar social class as they when in actuality, her family are poor, her father a butler and her brothers workmen. However, Hardy's tone doesn't lend itself to humour, and, if it did stray into that territory, it was done so bleakly that it's practicably indiscernible.
I loved many aspects of this novel. The social commentary was fascinating and I found Hardy's depiction of city life interesting as he mostly writes about rural communities and the working classes. It's not quite as large as Dickens' London, though it did have many glimmering moments that stood out to me. You can feel his disdain for London society bristling on the page, and it's a unique Hardy novel in that sense.
Ethelberta herself is a complex heroine, as most of his female characters are, and I found her plight compelling. I felt greatly for Ethelberta as she struggled to do the right thing and support her family in a way that doesn't cost her societal ostracisation or worsen their circumstances. She truly wants to do the right thing, wants to provide for them, but, as a woman, that's not really something she can successfully do without marrying well, which would potentially reveal her humble background. She attempts to do this independently by publishing her poetry and writing stories that she would perform in live readings yet that doesn't grant her any security and, ultimately, offended the one person who could've made her financially comfortable (her late husband's mother-in-law).
Thomas, if this is your idea of a comedy, I really don't know what to say. You left me feeling quite depressed to be honest...which I don't mind, but don't try to tell me you're writing s comedy. I really enjoyed this book though I would say that there were moments where the story lulled and felt like it was going too slowly despite being one of Hardy's shorter works. If you want to pick this up, don't go into it expecting a laugh a minute - it won't bruise you like Tess of the d'Urbervilles or Jude the Obscure but it'll still hurt.
daisy_angel75's review against another edition
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
duffypratt's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book treads much of the same ground as Far From the Madding Crowd, but it's not quite as good. It's a rare thing for Hardy: a comedy that is completely missing any tragic elements.
Ethelberta (such a great, old-fashioned sounding name) is our heroine. She is one of ten children in a poor family, but has escaped her poverty through her beauty, wit, and her innate talents. Working as a governess, she managed to attract a wealthy, eligible young man who then had the bad taste to die shortly after their honeymoon. Her mother-in-law takes her under her wing, but tries to keep her under her thumb. To keep her precarious standing in society, her poor background must be kept secret. Meanwhile, her means are equally precarious, so she determines to make her own way in the world by writing and performing.
That's just the set-up. As the title implies, the book is mainly about the host of admirers who are after her hand. Which will succeed? The old flame she rejected because, despite his talents and their suitability to each other, he was just too poor? The successful painter who admires her beauty and appreciates her talent? The up and coming gentleman who clings to his conservative values and sees her worth and longs to possess it? Or the elderly lord how dotes on her?
The situations are amusing, and some of them are actually funny. The set-up is wonderful and the characters are almost all extremely well done. There is an awful lot to admire in this book, and yet it is still not quite up there with my favorites of his: Madding Crowd, Jude, Tess, Mayor of Casterbridge.
But even middling Hardy is still excellent, and this book should be better known than it is. Very glad I re-read it.
(A short note on rating. I rarely comment on my ratings because I believe they are largely inconsequential. When I first came on Goodreads, I basically included all of the books in my library. This is one that I had not read in years. I went on a Hardy binge toward the end of college and just after, reading all the fiction he wrote. But when the time came to rate these things on Goodreads, probably 15+ years later, I remembered nothing from this book except that I thought it was decidedly middle of the road Hardy. Thus, a three star rating. I still think it's middle of the road Hardy, but that road is more elevated than I had remembered. So I bumped it a star, in comparison with the other books I'm currently reading.)
Ethelberta (such a great, old-fashioned sounding name) is our heroine. She is one of ten children in a poor family, but has escaped her poverty through her beauty, wit, and her innate talents. Working as a governess, she managed to attract a wealthy, eligible young man who then had the bad taste to die shortly after their honeymoon. Her mother-in-law takes her under her wing, but tries to keep her under her thumb. To keep her precarious standing in society, her poor background must be kept secret. Meanwhile, her means are equally precarious, so she determines to make her own way in the world by writing and performing.
That's just the set-up. As the title implies, the book is mainly about the host of admirers who are after her hand. Which will succeed? The old flame she rejected because, despite his talents and their suitability to each other, he was just too poor? The successful painter who admires her beauty and appreciates her talent? The up and coming gentleman who clings to his conservative values and sees her worth and longs to possess it? Or the elderly lord how dotes on her?
The situations are amusing, and some of them are actually funny. The set-up is wonderful and the characters are almost all extremely well done. There is an awful lot to admire in this book, and yet it is still not quite up there with my favorites of his: Madding Crowd, Jude, Tess, Mayor of Casterbridge.
But even middling Hardy is still excellent, and this book should be better known than it is. Very glad I re-read it.
(A short note on rating. I rarely comment on my ratings because I believe they are largely inconsequential. When I first came on Goodreads, I basically included all of the books in my library. This is one that I had not read in years. I went on a Hardy binge toward the end of college and just after, reading all the fiction he wrote. But when the time came to rate these things on Goodreads, probably 15+ years later, I remembered nothing from this book except that I thought it was decidedly middle of the road Hardy. Thus, a three star rating. I still think it's middle of the road Hardy, but that road is more elevated than I had remembered. So I bumped it a star, in comparison with the other books I'm currently reading.)