I finally have some time on my hands, and I'm wondering which of Thomas Hardy's novels might be best to start with. I've never read anything by him.
"[M]y fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended."--George W. Bush, 1 May 2003
I would say that "Madding Crowd" is a good intro to Hardy's work. It was the first book by him that I read. It's one of the few (maybe the only) novel by him that has a (relatively) happy ending. The rest, great as they are, are what some people might call "wrist slitters". Not me, of course - some people.
shareRead Tess of the D'Urbervilles first...then see the great movie version afterwards!
shareFFTMC is my fave book of all time. Well worth a read, definitely!!
ya great gullah!!!!
Hi! All Hardy's novels are good, and though there is a definite strain of melancholy and tragedy throughout his work, he always expresses warm, humane sympathies. Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D'Urbervilles are perhaps his best, but Far From the Madding Crowd would be a good starter.
shareI read far from the madding crowd first as a young teen and then the return of the native which was far sadder. The mayor of casterbridge is a good one too... and was made into an okay bbc movie.
shareAmen to that, and for many a year now since I first read it.
shareI also would recommend "Far From the Madding Crowd" as the first Hardy book to read because of the ultimately happy ending. Seeing the film first may help a person understand the book better.
The reader also may like to know that many British who came to the U.S. as immigrants came from the western, rural area of England in which Hardy's novels are set. I personally have noticed people from this part of England have a much slighter accent than those native to other parts of England, and they are much easier for Americans to understand.
Sheila Beers
I liked Hardy far better when he was still working with Laurel.
shareMy mom said her mother said she was glad she wasn't a character in one of Hardy's books and that put me off him. If I read any of them maybe I should read this one.
shareSure.
shareIf I may dissent slightly from the consensus, after reading 'Far From The Madding Crowd' as a school pupil I can only say that it is a good job Hardy is already dead or I would have hunted him down and fed him his own eyeballs. I hated it more than words can say.
Wonderful film, though.
http://thefilmwotiwatched.wordpress.com/share
I also enjoyed "The Return of the Native" if enjoy is the right word.
shareHArdy is the master tragic novel writer. People who complain that his novels are too depressing, need to view them as classic literary tragedies! NO one seriously complains that Hamlet or Macbeth are too depressing, yet many people don't read Hardy because the stories are too depressing. They are missing out! His writing is gorgeous. Here are my favorites (of those I've read) in order:
The Return of the Native (the audiobook read by Alan Rickman is stunning).
Far from the Madding Crowd
The MAyor of Casterbridge
Tess of the d'Ubervilles
Jude the Obscure
The Trumpet Major
His short stories are also fantastic and he was a respected poet as well.
I too like Thomas Hardy. And I am glad you mentioned the audio book of Return of the Native, read by Alan Rickman. He perfectly captures each character in his reading. Egdon Heath itself is often seen as a major character in the book, and the descriptions in the book (and read by Rickman) are stunning.
I don't really think of the books as depressing. As you point out, they are tragedies in classic literature, with characters that are believable - heroic, yet flawed.
Another, smaller novel of Hardy's, is Under the Greenwood Tree. It was different than his other novels - lighter, with a happier ending, but still had much of what I like about his writing. He paints vivid pictures of his characters and of the places they inhabit.
All Hardy's books are worth reading. They're tragic and dramatic, yes, but oh so worth it!
shareI first read FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD nearly 50 years ago. It was part of the curriculum when I was a senior in high school. I found Hardy, unlike other Victorians like Sir Walter Scott, very readable. It is set in the southwest part of England, beautifully lush farm country. Hardy called in Wessex (He was actually born in Dorset, where CROWD was filmed.)
Hardy started life as an architect but turned to fiction later in life. Despite the quality of his work, he abandoned fiction and wrote poetry for the last three decades of his life. As in CROWD, his characters seem governed by social convention and fate.
TESS OF THE D'UBERVILLES has been filmed seven times, the best being Roman Polanski's version with Nastasia Kinski, and the MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE three, the best being the 1979 Masterpiece Theater miniseries with Alan Bates. The fifth version of CROWD is in pre-production now, adapted by Robert Benton to the American West with Cate Blanchett. I'm glad they're not going to try to remake the 1967 version, which with Nicholas Roeg's photography, Frederic Rafael's adaptation, Richard Rodney Bennet's evocative score, and John Schlesinger's superb direction is a masterpice of Victoriana.
Other notable Hardy novels are JUDE, THE OBSCURE and THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE.
I hope you have read and enjoyed the book by now. I studied the book at school and loved it and Hardy's writing. There's a lot to savour in his descriptions of people and places - very atmospheric and beautiful. You can sense that he loves the places he's writing about and the people - though they are fictional they are based on real places in Doset where he lived and I think his stories are quite gripping because you feel involved with the characters. For me this was his most enjoyable book but others prefer Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
share[deleted]
Hardy's always worth a read, one of the finest writers of all time in the English language. Here's my recommended list, in order:
Far From the Madding Crowd
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Return of the Native
Tess of D'Urbervilles
Jude the Obscure
This might be the order in which they were written, I don't remember. Anyway, you get a good progression there. Hardy becomes more hard-bitten and cynical, his writing becomes more pained and hopeless, but also more beautiful. Hahaha, well, I feel I should have been able to come up with something better than that. Not very articulate tonight. :P Anyway, my personal favorite is "Return of the Native," though I think "Tess" and "Jude" are actually better novels.
I think this is a good one to start with because it is probably the most positive of his novels. He wrote it when he was in a relatively happy point in his life. As time went on his plots became more and more pessimistic.
My husband and I read this novel to each other when we were dating, we enjoyed it so much.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Human Rights: Know them, demand them, defend them.
I've read Tess of the D'Urbervilles, finding it very sad yet beautiful, and an honest depiction of what life could be like in that particular time and place. "Jude the Obscure" is a good movie also, with Kate Winslet.
Ssssshh! You'll wake up the monkey!