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A review by duffypratt
The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy
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.)