Desperate Remedies

by Thomas Hardy, Mary Rimmer (Editor), Mary Rimmer (Introduction)

Overview

Hardy described Desperate Remedies as a tale of 'mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity'.

Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.
Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Hardy's first published novel, and in it he draws blithely on the 'sensation novel' perfected by Wilkie Collins. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when Desperate Remedies appeared anonymously in 1871. In its depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141922010
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	03/30/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	824,768
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928) was recognized, and even revered, as the major literary figure of his time by his contemporaries. Most of his major novels are available in Penguin Classics.

MARY RIMMER is Associate Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. She has written extensively on Hardy, and is currently writing a book on narrative voice in Hardy.

Date of Birth:

June 2, 1840

Date of Death:

January 11, 1928

Place of Birth:

Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, England

Place of Death:

Max Gate, Dorchester, England

Education:

Served as apprentice to architect James Hicks

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; General editor's preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction; Desperate Remedies; Editorial emendations; List of variants - accidentals; End-of-line word division; Appendix A. Hardy's prefatory notes; Appendix B. Frontispieces; Appendix C. Description of principal texts; Explanatory notes.

Editorial Reviews

Hardy launched his writing career with this 1871 novel, which actually was published anonymously. Its sexuality, including lesbianism, was apparently too much of a Victorian eyebrow-raiser for him to attach his name. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Anna Bentinck valiantly works to keep Thomas Hardy's early story of love and deception consistently compelling. An unconventional narrator, Bentinck takes pauses in unusual places, injecting a note of spontaneity into Hardy's occasionally hard-going descriptive passages. Hardy's story is highly character driven, and while Bentinck's style doesn't quite make the most of the variation in character, her dignified portrayal of each of the cast proves empathetic and humanizing, thereby grounding the drama in realistic emotion. Though she occasionally resorts to slightly hammy accents, her sensitivity to the mental state of the characters is charming and engaging, and drives the listener through the stodgier sections of Hardy's prose. This proves all the more rewarding once the plot picks up and the book itself becomes irresistibly interesting. Z.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

Anna Bentinck valiantly works to keep Thomas Hardy's early story of love and deception consistently compelling. An unconventional narrator, Bentinck takes pauses in unusual places, injecting a note of spontaneity into Hardy's occasionally hard-going descriptive passages. Hardy's story is highly character driven, and while Bentinck's style doesn't quite make the most of the variation in character, her dignified portrayal of each of the cast proves empathetic and humanizing, thereby grounding the drama in realistic emotion. Though she occasionally resorts to slightly hammy accents, her sensitivity to the mental state of the characters is charming and engaging, and drives the listener through the stodgier sections of Hardy's prose. This proves all the more rewarding once the plot picks up and the book itself becomes irresistibly interesting. Z.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile