Jude l'Obscur est le dernier et le plus audacieux des romans de Thomas Hardy. L'auteur de Tess d'Urberville y songe dès 1888, comme en atteste une note de ses carnets : " Une nouvelle sur un jeune homme qui n'a pu aller à Oxford. Ses efforts, son échec. " Hardy estime que " le monde doit savoir " quelles difficultés rencontrent les non-privilégiés pour s'instruire - l'ultime ambition de Jude. Mais, bientôt, le roman en cours suit une autre voie : Hardy entend contester les lois sur le mariage, qui " constituent la machinerie tragique de l'histoire ".Condamné par son origine, Jude l'est encore par les liens d'un mariage forcé, puis par l'interdit pesant sur un amour illicite, sa compagne étant sa propre cousine. Hardy veut enfin décrire " la guerre terrible qui se livre entre la chair et l'esprit ", et qui retarde l'accomplissement du destin de Jude.Paru d'abord sous forme de feuilleton en 1895, Jude l'Obscur fit scandale par sa façon ouverte de traiter des moeurs dans la campagne anglaise de la fin du siècle - ce Wessex magnifié dans toute l'oeuvre de Thomas Hardy.
Gabriel Oak, jeune paysan du Wessex, est devenu propriétaire d'une bergerie. Il s'éprend de Barbara Everdene, venue s'installer au pays avec sa tante. Mais la belle repousse ses avances avec hauteur. Ayant perdu toutes ses bêtes par la faute d'un chien mal dressé, Gabriel, ruiné, est réduit à trouver du travail dans une ferme qu'il vient de sauver d'un incendie et dont la propriétaire n'est autre que... Barbara, qu'un héritage a rendue riche.Entretemps, la jeune femme subit les assauts d'un prospère exploitant, William Boldwood, mais aussi de son rival, le fringant sergent Francis Troy, qu'elle finit par épouser, sans savoir qu'une domestique, Fanny, est enceinte de ses oeuvres... Gabriel ne parvient pas à lui cacher la mort en couches de la mère et de l'enfant, tandis que Troy, repentant, tente de se noyer. Alors que chacun le croit mort, il resurgit à la veille de Noël et est abattu par Boldwood, qui retourne l'arme contre lui. Lorsque enfin Barbara comprend qu'elle n'a jamais eu qu'un ami, Gabriel lui annonce qu'il quitte l'Angleterre pour la Californie...Le quatrième roman de Thomas Hardy (1874) fut son premier grand succès public et critique.
Dans le sud-ouest de l'Angleterre , au début du XIXe siècle, quatre destins de femmes meurtries par l'amour : amour impossible pour un soldat étranger, amour ensorcelé pour un violoniste de village, amour refusé par un fils trop rigide, amour rêvé pour un homme jamais rencontré... Comme dans Tess d'Urberville et Jude l'obscur, Thomas Hardy conte à merveille dans ces courts textes les tourments de l'âme féminine et la brutalité d'une société où le sentiment n'a pas sa place.
Un jeune fermier et un vicaire se disputent le coeur de Fancy Day, institutrice dans un village du Wessex. Indisponible en poche, l'un des premiers romans de l'auteur de Tess d'Urberville.
Dans le paisible village de Mellstock, à la veille de Noël, l'arrivée d'une nouvelle institutrice est au coeur de toutes les conversations. Sans que nul l'ait encore vue, Fancy Day, une enfant du pays, fait déjà tourner les têtes des célibataires du comté.Dick Dewey, un jeune fermier, est le premier à lui faire des avances. Tombé fou amoureux au premier regard, il finit par la demander en mariage dans le plus grand secret. Mais un autre homme n'est pas indifférent aux charmes de la jeune femme : Mr Maybold, le vicaire, qui l'invite à se joindre à la chorale de la paroisse comme organiste. À son tour, il s'offre à l'épouser. Or Fancy, frivole et capricieuse, fait languir ses prétendants, bien consciente qu'il lui faudra renoncer à son indépendance lorsqu'elle sera mariée.Dans un labyrinthe de passions, Sous la verte feuillée, paru anonymement en 1872, dresse une fresque pleine d'ironie et de mélancolie du monde rural cher à Thomas Hardy. De cette histoire tissée de savoureux malentendus, où s'affrontent pour une femme une âme candide et un notable respecté, ne subsistera qu'un secret bien gardé par la fantasque Fancy...
Tess is little more than an English farm girl when she meets the man who will change her life: Angel Clare. A kind gentleman and the son of a reverend, Angel could be the answer to Tess's miserable fate. But with a family on the brink of destitution, she has no time to wait for true love. When another suitor, Alec, begins to fixate on Tess and word of a rich widow by the name of D'Urberville hints at a hidden family fortune, Tess's life spirals out of control and she is forced to make an impossible choice.
A tale of passion, loss, and cruel hardship, `Tess of the d'Urbervilles' is one of Hardy's most famous and beloved novels. It has been adapted for the stage and screen many times, including the hugely popular BBC series written by David Nicholls and starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Redmayne.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He belonged to the Victorian realist tradition and was influenced by the writings of Romanticism. His novels strongly criticise Victorian society for constraining individuals in regard to marriage, education, and religion: shunning happiness in the name of social propriety. Hardy's works explore themes of love, class, and poverty with a painstaking devotion to realism. His best-known works include `Far From the Madding Crowd', `The Mayor of Casterbridge', `Tess of the d'Urbervilles', and `Jude the Obscure'.
Michael Henchard est un jeune saisonnier qui vit avec sa femme, Susan, et sa fille, Elizabeth-Jane, dans un village du Wessex.Un jour, sous l'empire de l'alcool, après une violente dispute avec sa femme, il décide de la vendre avec sa fille à un marin de passage, M. Wenson. Dégrisé, il mesure l'étendue du désastre et, plus seul que jamais, se promet de ne plus jamais s'approcher d'un goulot...Dix-huit années après, devenu un marchand prospère, Michael est élu maire de la ville de Casterbridge. Tous le croient veuf. Mais le hasard place sur sa route une certaine Lucette Le Sueur, avec qui il noue une relation...Or la jeune femme, déshonorée, se voit contrainte d'épouser Michael pour retrouver sa dignité. Pas si simple, puisque le maire de Casterbridge, devant la loi, reste un homme marié... C'est le moment que choisissent, pour surgir du passé, Susan et sa fille Elisabeth-Jane...
Who wouldn't want passionate love in their life? Of course, this love is usually accompanied by a lot of jealously, conflict and tragedy and this novel is no exception to that rule!
Poor Bathsheba has three different suitors; however will she choose between them? Each suitor adds more uncertainty and complications to the ordered world of Bathsheba and she is soon lost in a vortex of passion, love, and social problems.
'Far from the Madding Crowd' is the novel that brought Thomas Hardy considerable literary success and has been made into a movie many times, most notably in the Oscar-nominated 1967 version. The most recent film is from 2015 and starred Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba, Matthias Schoenaerts as Gabriel Oak and the famous Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen's dad.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He belonged to the Victorian realist tradition in English literature, and was very much influenced by the writings of Romanticism. In his novels he criticized strongly society's attitude towards the less developed and rural regions in England. His best known works include 'Far From the Madding Crowd', 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', and 'Jude the Obscure'.
La fougueuse Eustacia Vye est prête à tout pour quitter la lande déserte et morne d'Egdon, où elle dépérit. Son appétit de liberté la porte tout d'abord à courtiser Damon, garcon charmant mais sans cervelle. Ses charmes parviennent à le détourner de la douce et inoffensive Thomasine, sa fiancée...
Lorsque le cousin de celle-ci, Clym Yeobright, revient de Paris fortune faite, Eustacia voit aussitôt le parti à tirer de ce jeune homme entreprenant, qui a pris son essor loin du pays natal. D'autant que Clym ne repousse pas ses avances. Il a pourtant d'autres projets quitte à contrarier sa mère, qui n'entend pas le marier à cette fille de basse naissance...
Paru en feuilleton en 1878, révisé en 1912, Le Retour au pays natal met aux prises, telle une tragédie rurale, des hommes et des femmes en proie à des passions contraires, dans un huis-clos dont la terre sauvage du Wessex est le personnage principal.
Jude Fawley is a simple working-class man who dreams of one day becoming something more. Yet after the failure of his first marriage, a loveless entrapment built upon lies, Jude starts to have feelings for his cousin, Sue Bridehead, and soon sacrifices all that he has to pursue a life together with her.
A dark and pessimistic story of how man's unfettered desire may lead to the ruin of everyone around him, `Jude the Obscure' led to a scandalous outcry amongst its Victorian readership. It is the final novel written by Thomas Hardy, and one of his most powerful in its unabashed exploration of class, religion, and sexuality.
`Jude the Obscure' is a perfect tragedy for readers of Brontë's `Wuthering Heights' or du Maurier's `Rebecca'.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He belonged to the Victorian realist tradition in English literature and was influenced by the writings of Romanticism.
His novels strongly criticise Victorian society for constraining individuals in regard to marriage, education, and religion: shunning happiness in the name of social propriety.
Hardy's works explore themes of love, class, and poverty with a painstaking devotion to realism. His best-known works include `Far From the Madding Crowd', `The Mayor of Casterbridge', `Tess of the d'Urbervilles', and `Jude the Obscure'.
Tout rapproche Lady Viviette, dont le mari a disparu en Afrique depuis des années, et le tout jeune Swithin, promis à une belle carrière d'astronome. Mais s'il y a des unions écrites dans les étoiles, celle-ci est contrecarrée par les déterminismes humains dont l'écrivain anglais Thomas Hardy s'est toujours fait le peintre sarcastique. Leur condition sociale, leur âge et l'« ironie de la vie » - ici incarnée par un vieil oncle misogyne qui fait de sa fortune un objet de chantage pour empêcher l'union - rendront la séparation inéluctable...C'est pour oublier combien la passion ne dure qu'un temps que Thomas Hardy a choisi comme décor de cette histoire tragique la pérennité des espaces célestes. Dans À la lumière des étoiles (1882), l'illusion de l'amour, frappée en plein coeur, reste totale.
Eustacia Vye despises her boring country village of Egdon Heath. Beautiful, headstrong, and passionate, Eustacia longs to escape her home and lead a life of romance and adventure. And when Clym Yeobright, the eponymous native, returns from Paris, Eustacia decides that she will make him fall in love with her. Soon, their lives are intertwined in an endless labyrinth of passion, tragedy, and misfortune.
One of Thomas Hardy's most famous novels, `The Return of the Native' caused outcry for its unapologetically bold female characters and illicit sexual content. Eustacia Vye is a heroine to rival the likes of `Vanity Fair's Becky Sharp or even `Bridgerton's' Daphne.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He belonged to the victorian realist tradition and was influenced by the writings of Romanticism. His novels strongly criticise Victorian society for constraining individuals regarding marriage, education, and religion: shunning happiness in the name of social propriety. Hardy's works explore themes of love, class, and poverty with a painstaking devotion to realism. His best-known works include `Far From the Madding Crowd', `The Mayor of Casterbridge', `Tess of the d'Urbervilles', and `Jude the Obscure'.
Upon returning to her humble village life in Dorset after years of schooling, Grace Melbury discovers that her family have new plans for her, as her childhood sweetheart, the woodsman Giles Winterborne, is now considered beneath her.
When a new suitor, the charming Doctor Edred Fitzpiers, notices Grace, her father decides the two must marry. Will Grace find a way to choose a future for herself, or will she be doomed to a loveless marriage?
A tale of adultery, lies, and betrayal, `The Woodlanders' follows the scandal of Grace Melbury as it consumes the town of Little Hintock. A classic Thomas Hardy affair, readers of `Wuthering Heights' or `Jane Eyre' will fall in love with `The Woodlanders'.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He belonged to the Victorian realist tradition in English literature and was influenced by the writings of Romanticism.
His novels strongly criticise Victorian society for constraining individuals in regard to marriage, education, and religion: shunning happiness in the name of social propriety.
Hardy's works explore themes of love, class, and poverty with a painstaking devotion to realism. His best-known works include `Far From the Madding Crowd', `The Mayor of Casterbridge', `Tess of the d'Urbervilles', and `Jude the Obscure'.
Jocelyn Pierston wants above all to find the ideal woman, but perfection is elusive as ever. A masterful sculptor, he starts to grow obsessed with the idea of capturing beauty in stone - and the statue he calls his "well-beloved".
But when he falls in love with two women from the same family, three generations apart, his thirst for perfection soon escalates into an uncontrollable desire.
With its unique approach to love and marking a shift in Hardy's emotional and psychological portrayal of his characters, `The Well-Beloved' is a compelling journey through an artist's erotic obsession and the labyrinthine world of Victorian society.
A nightmare version of ´Pygmalion´, ´The Well-Beloved´ matches up to Oscar Wilde's `The Picture of Dorian Gray' and Mary Shelley's `Frankenstein' with the ultimate tale of tragic love and the pursuit of art.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He belonged to the Victorian realist tradition in English literature and was influenced by the writings of Romanticism.
His novels strongly criticise Victorian society for constraining individuals in regard to marriage, education, and religion: shunning happiness in the name of social propriety.
Hardy's works explore themes of love, class, and poverty with a painstaking devotion to realism. His best-known works include `Far From the Madding Crowd', `The Mayor of Casterbridge', `Tess of the d'Urbervilles', and `Jude the Obscure'.
Tess d'Uberville
Thomas Hardy
Cet ouvrage a fait l'objet d'un véritable travail en vue d'une édition numérique. Un travail typographique le rend facile et agréable à lire.
Pour avoir découvert qu'il est le descendant de l'illustre lignée des chevaliers d'Urberville, John Durbeyfield se pique de noblesse et envoie sa fille Tess entre les griffes d'un lointain cousin et véritable séducteur. La jeune fille a plus d'éducation et d'honnêteté que ses parents et se réclamer d'une lointaine parente lui fait horreur. « L'orgueil de Tess lui rendait le rôle de parente pauvre particulièrement antipathique. » Mais pour offrir son aide à sa famille, elle accepte la place que lui propose Alec d'Urberville et subit son odieuse séduction.
Tess d'Urberville est une héroïne sacrifiée pour laquelle son auteur a beaucoup d'affection. Impossible de ne pas compatir aux nombreux malheurs de la jeune fille. La plume de Thomas Hardy est solide et puissante. Si la morale distillée tout au long du texte a de quoi agacer par son côté définitif, il faut souligner qu'elle était parfaitement novatrice pour l'époque et c'est bien ce qui a valu à Tess d'Urberville d'être si largement censuré lors de sa publication. Source http://www.babelio.com/
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Jude Fawley is a young man who longs to better himself and go to Christminster University. However, poverty forces him into a job as a stonemason and an unhappy marriage. When his wife leaves him Jude moves to Christminster determined to follow his dream. There he meets and falls for his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. The couple refuses to marry much to the disapproval of the society around them. In this heartbreaking story Hardy shows the devastating effects of social prejudice and oppression.The novel caused outrage when it was published in 1895 and, as a result, was the last novel Hardy ever wrote.
Proud, passionate Eustacia Vye marries Clym Yeobright in the hope that he will help her escape her cramped rural existence. But when their relationship falters Eustacia turns to her old lover Damon Wildeve, leading to a disastrous climax on the brooding wilds of Egdon Heath.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LUCY HUGHES-HALLETTThe Mayor of Casterbridge is a man haunted by his past. In his youth he betrayed his wife and baby daughter in a shocking incident that led him to swear never to touch alcohol again for twenty-one years. He has since risen from his humble origins to become a respected pillar of the community in Casterbridge, but his secrets cannot stay hidden forever and he has many hard lessons left to learn.
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. Here is one of Thomas Hardy's most popular novels, soon to be released as a major motion picture in May 2015.
'I shall do one thing in this life - one thing certain - that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die'
Independent and spirited, Bathsheba Everdene owns the hearts of three men. Striving to win her love in different ways, their relationships with Bathsheba complicate her life in bucolic Wessex - and cast shadows over their own. With the morals and expectations of rural society weighing heavily upon her, Bathsheba experiences the torture of unrequited love and betrayal, and discovers how random acts of chance and tragedy can dramatically alter life's course.
The first of Hardy's novels to become a major literary success, Far from the Madding Crowd explores what it means to live and to love.
HarperCollins is pround to present a range of best-loved, essential classics.
'My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances! When I see what you know, what you have read, and seen, and thought, I feel what a nothing I am!'
Challenging the hypocrisy and social conventions of the rural Victorian world, Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield as she attempts to escape the poverty of her background, seeking wealth by claiming connection with the aristocratic D'Urberville family. It is through Tess's relationships with two very different men that Hardy tells the story of his tragic heroine, and exposes the double standards of the world that she inhabits with searing pathos and heart-rending sentiment.
THIS ORANGE INHERITANCE EDITION OF Tess of the D'Urbervilles IS PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTIONBooks shape our lives and transform the way we see ourselves and each other. The best books are timeless and continue to be relevant generation after generation. Vintage Classics asked the winners of The Orange Prize for Fiction which books they would pass onto the next generation and why. Anne Michaels chose Tess of the D'Urbervilles.Tess is an innocent young girl until the day she goes to visit her rich 'relatives', the D'Urbervilles. Her encounter with her manipulative cousin, Alec, leads her onto a path that is beset with suffering and betrayal. When she falls in love with another man, Angel Clare, Tess sees a potential escape from her past, but only if she can tell him her shameful secret...'Gloriously physical, full of passion and irony, humour and tenderness' Anne Michaels
Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy's passionate tale of the beautiful, headstrong farmer Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors, firmly established the thirty-four-year-old writer as a popular novelist. According to Virginia Woolf, "The subject was right; the method was right; the poet and the countryman, the sensual man, the sombre reflective man, the man of learning, all enlisted to produce a book which . . . must hold its place among the great English novels." Introducing the fictional name of "Wessex" to describe Hardy's legendary countryside, this early masterpiece draws a vivid picture of rural life in southwest England.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the 1912 Wessex edition and features Hardy's map of Wessex.
The Melancholy Hussar/ A Tragedy of Two Ambitions/ The First Countess of Wessex/ Barbara of the House of Grebe/ For Conscience' Sake/ The Son's Veto/ On the Western Circuit/ An Imaginative Woman/ A Changed Man/ Enter a Dragoon
The 11 short storiesin this collection range from those with the Wessex setting familiar from Hardy's novels, to aristocratic historical fantasies set in the 17th and 18th centuries, and tragic or ironic contemporary dramas. Enormously readable in their own right, thestories can also be seen as a rich testing ground for ideas and themes that receive more sustained treatment in Hardy's most innovative and controversial novels.
Hardy's two versions of a strange story set in the weird landscape of Portland. The central figure is a man obsessed both with the search for his ideal woman and with sculpting the perfect figure of Aphrodite.
With an essay by Rosemary Sumner.'Then they proceeded to scan the sky, roving from planet to star, from single stars to double stars, from double to coloured stars...'Hardy's atmospheric, moving story of star-crossed lovers shows human beings at the mercy of forces far beyond their control, setting a tragic drama of human passion and conflict against a background of vast stellar space and scientific discovery. Two on a Tower tells the story of Lady Constantine, who breaks all the rules of decorum when she falls in love with the beautiful youth Swithin St Cleeve, her social inferior and ten years her junior. Together, in an ancient monument converted into an astronomical observation tower, they create their own private universe - until the pressures of the outside world threaten to destroy it.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
