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A cruel joke at a country fair goes too far when a drunken laborer auctions off his wife and child to the highest bidder. So begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy's gripping tale of a man's rise and fall amid the natural beauty and human brutality of a rural English community.First published serially in 1886, the novel was praised by critics for its realism and poetic style. Most agreed, however, that its plot hinges upon unlikely turns of events. Hardy replied, «It is not improbabilities of incident but improbabilities of character that matter.» In this book — originally subtitled «A Story of a Man of Character» — the author perpetually tests his characters with frequent intrusions by the hand of fate. Rich in descriptive powers and steeped in irony, this timeless tale offers a spellbinding portrayal of ambition, rivalry, revenge, and repentance.

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Powerful and controversial from its 1895 publication to the present, Jude the Obscure scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate. Between its frank portrayals of sexuality and its indictments of marriage, religion, and England's class system, the novel offended a broad swath of readers. Its heated reception led the embittered author to renounce fiction, turning his considerable talents ever afterward to writing poetry.Hardy's last novel depicts a changing world, where a poor stonemason can aspire to a university education and a higher place in society—but where in reality such dreams remain unattainable. Thwarted at every turn, Jude Hawley abandons his hopes, is trapped into an unwise marriage, and pursues a doomed relationship with his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. The lovers find themselves equally incapable of living within the conventions of their era and of transcending its legal and moral strictures. Hailed by modern critics as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought, Hardy's tragic parable continues to resonate with readers.

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Now a major motion picture! The tale of a passionate, independent woman and her three suitors, Far from the Madding Crowd tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene and her relationships with the devoted Gabriel Oak, the dashing Sergeant Troy, and the reclusive gentleman farmer, Mr. Boldwood. Through her wayward nature and a winding path of events propelled by Thomas Hardy's recurring feminist themes, Bathsheba is led to tragedy and, finally, true love.Written in 1874, Far from the Madding Crowd was Hardy's first masterpiece. Alive with lush, idyllic settings that exert profound influences on the novel's characters, it is an unforgettable narrative of both beauty and devastation. Its portrait of rural life, and compelling examination of social conventions, has made it one of English literature's greatest works.

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In the sphere of poets like Swift, Meredith and Kipling, Thomas Hardy is today becoming recognized as one of the greatest English poets of this century. As a young man with interests in journalism, art, and architecture, Hardy achieved greatness in the fiction genre early on, writing novels for a living until his mid-fifties. He then abandoned fiction entirely in order to devote himself to his true passion—poetry. This ample selection of poems demonstrates Hardy's experimentation with intricate stanza forms and rhyme schemes, as well as his genius for rhetorical ambiguity. Set in his native, rural Dorset, his «Selected Poems» include such well-known pieces as «During Wind and Rain,» «Afterwards,» «The Darkling Thrush,» and «The Oxen.» Although most of the acclaim for his poetry was received posthumously, Hardy's poetry evokes themes and ideas that transcend time. Readers today still enjoy these poems of love, nature, and life's little ironies.

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Thomas Hardy's 1887 novel «The Woodlanders» takes place in the woodland village of Little Hintock and concerns the story of Giles Winterborne, an honest woodsman who wishes to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace Melbury. While the two are informally betrothed to each other, when Grace gains an education through her father's persistent financial sacrifices he feels that his daughter is too good for a simple woodsman and pushes her into the direction of another suitor. Set in a rustic, evocative setting, «The Woodlanders» is rich with such Hardyan themes as unrequited love and social class mobility. A classic novel, «The Woodlanders» is a worthy addition to the works of Thomas Hardy and fans of the author will enjoy this somber and tragic tale.

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"Under the Greenwood Tree" is the story of the romantic entanglement between church musician, Dick Dewey, and the attractive new school mistress, Fancy Day. A pleasant romantic tale set in the Victorian era, «Under the Greenwood Tree» is one of Thomas Hardy's most gentle and pastoral novels.

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Censored on its release in 1841, [i]Tess of the d’Urbervilles challenged attitudes with its depiction of a woman forced into a chain of painful circumstances by her social status and by the often cruel treatment of friends, family and the men who loved her. At once a novel of character and a sharply critical novel of society and class, [i]Tess of the d’Urbervilles follows its heroine through a social and emotional gauntlet. The memory of abuse and the stigma of a pregnancy out of wedlock haunt Tess as she struggles with the stern strictures of society, the uncharitable attitudes of those around her and, most formidable of all, her own desires. A steady stream of critical re-interpretations of Tess has only lent strength to her standing as one of the most memorable characters in Victorian fiction. Troubling, intense and possessing a uniquely emotional brand of narrative suspense, the novel has come to be seen as not simply a classic but as Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Tess of the d’Urbervilles is both modern and readable.

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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), dreamed since his childhood of becoming a poet. Then he produced several popular works that cemented his reputation as a great novelist of the Victorian period, and earned him the admiration of later writers like D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. Hardy's stories are noted for their nuances of Romantic and Enlightenment thinking, particularly elements of the supernatural. In «Two on a Tower», a love story set against the background of the stellar universe, Hardy defied social norms of the day and shocked his readers. In what is today seen as the author's most important portrayal of love across physical and societal divides, the novel tells the story of Lady Constantine, a married, older, aristocratic, religious woman who falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, a young astronomer, single, lower class, and agnostic. Hardy's fascination with science and astronomy is clear in this romantic and whimsical novel.

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This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works – the Œuvre – of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook – 13090 pages easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate: • Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman • Far from the Madding Crowd • Jude the Obscure • The Return of the Native • The Mayor of Casterbridge • Far from the Madding Crowd • The Great English Short-Story Writers • A Pair of Blue Eyes • Under the Greenwood Tree; Or, The Mellstock Quire • The Woodlanders • Desperate Remedies • Wessex Tales • The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon • Two on a Tower • Time's Laughingstocks, and Other Verses • Wessex Poems and Other Verses • Life's Little Ironies • The Return of the Native • The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament • The Trumpet-Major • Poems of the Past and the Present • A Changed Man, and Other Tales • A Laodicean: A Story of To-day • The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters • The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid • A Group of Noble Dames • Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with Miscellaneous Pieces • Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses • Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman • Late Lyrics and Earlier, With Many Other Verses • etc.

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