Scan barcode
A review by milesjmoran
The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy, Tim Dolin
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.