Our September challenge book.
Dad really enjoyed it, I really did not.
It’s an earlier Hardy (almost 20 years before Tess of the d’Urbervilles and more than that before Jude the Obscure) but its immaturities writing-wise really didn’t bother me. And Dad’s right, there is some really beautiful descriptive writing in it. (Some of the descriptions of the cliffs and the countryside would really take me away for a moment and I’d think “oh that sentence was lovely.”)
But I found the characters, especially Elfride, and the plot and the ridiculous romantic contretemps — all of which could have been avoided just by somebody opening up their mouth and being honest once in a while — So. Fucking. ANNOYING! I mean, yes, I know, it’s a thing of its time, and society was a very different animal and women had such a struggle to even be allowed to have opinions… YES I KNOW all that. That doesn’t make me enjoy it any more or want to be more patient with it. I really never found anyone in the novel interesting enough or attractive enough to be more than irritated by their behavior and the events.
Dad on the other hand could find more sympathy for it.
In his own words: I ended up liking it a lot–i think Hardy has the gift of life, always makes the characters live (for me, anyway). Did you notice he stopped being so maddeningly allusive as he got closer to the end–he started to trust his own tale and didn’t need to refer to Hamlet, etc. And the way his poor people a) get stuck with carrying these torches of love beyond all reason and b) ALWAYS running into the wrong person or the wrong room or being seen in the wrong company. Poor Elfride!!!! Leaving that note for that ghastly woman!! What a schmuck Knight was. Also like Hardy’s scenery, the way the places and landscapes become characters. Great cliff scene, no? And, for a Victorian, lots of erotic buzz.