Far From The Madding Crowd; by Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy is not merely master storyteller, there is much more to the superb author than that. It is difficult to decide which facet of his excellence to go into first and which is the best and so on.

There is the genuineness of settings and descriptions of his time and place, which might seem trivial but really is not easy to achieve. There is the human nature and its vagaries, especially when it comes to interactions of people with one another and with ambient society. There is the series of events that are as genuine as in real life, with few major happenings and their ripples, reactions of various characters major and minor, and events caused by people as well as by fate.

But the best of all is his lyrical, poetic descriptions of the earth and heavens, of perfectly ordinary people and their reactions to it all, in a slow and deliberate tempo that gives one far more than if one were actually experiencing it all first hand.
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This work perhaps is best in that respect in that it begins with rhythms of life of a shepherd who is prudent and competent at everything he does, which includes his ability to tell time by looking at skies and to know which sheep needs precisely what, to know that harvest needs action now before rains come pelting down and destroy all the work of the year of all the men. Then there is the funeral scene with its dense fog that he describes as unshed tears suspended in air and thick on the trees.

As to the characters and story that grows out of the people and their nature described so well, few could do it so well. The bewitching beauty who likes her independence and her very strength and nobility of character that - along with her innocence - makes her a prey to the vagaries of an unstable vain man who is not without feeling but is without much conscience or strength when it comes to responsibility, after she has not accepted a man she liked and could be friends with and work with, and after she has innocently been the cause of a noble character man of wealth falling in love with her deeply, is a facet of human interactions that most would not look twice at, except perhaps to comment that she deserved it. That she did not so deserve even though it was her faults and mistakes that caused it is made clear by this author even through his less noble characters.

That it all ends happily after deep tragic events muted and otherwise, is the final satisfaction of this work. With Hardy, that is not always the case.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012. 

A Group Of Noble Dames; by Thomas Hardy.

A collection of tales from the master story teller of England with women young and old as the focus of the stories, told at a cosy setting of fireplace talk post dinner amongst a group of men exchanging tales. Interesting in study of human nature, each different from other and only constant is the unpredictability of not only events but human nature itself.

Mayor of Casterbridge; by Thomas Hardy.

A man can make a horrendous mistake in a bad moment with drink and temper, and however much he regrets it and does his best to change himself and aspire to be a better man, another moment of being less vigilent with one's faults can again bring him down and bring unhappiness to him and others around him. One may pity him, but one has to excuse those he harmed and are unable to love him again, or even forgive him, especially the young ones.

Thomas Hardy is a master in literature. And this is one of his best. Few books can be so heart wrenching about a man of such character.

Thursday, September 11, 2008
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Hardy belonged to an era when a few miles were a great separation, although people were traversing the Atlantic ocean regularly enough in search of livelihood and sometimes more than once in a lifetime. Perhaps it is that era or perhaps it is the author himself or it is a reflection of his times and his society, but invariably he makes his stance clear - unless there is subterfuge and trickery involved in saving a woman who made a mistake however small, pay she must and she does in his works for the mistake, often with her very life.

Tess was raped and she paid with loss of her marriage by her husband leaving her, insisting she was wife of the man who had raped her, and she eventually paid for it by being hanged for the murder of the rapist. Lucetta in this one is made to pay for having nursed a stranger to health and thus compromised her name, and if she marries another for love of the other or for fear of the one she nursed, no matter, society shall punish her so much she loses a baby prematurely and dies of shock.

Susan is sold by her husband to a stranger and she is over and over certified as innocent for having gone with him, no matter how wrong the husband was in the first place, and dies soon after attempt to correct her mistake. Her daughter is miserable for no fault of her own, is full of virtues and triumphs all her trials with the prescribed womanly virtues, except the unwillingness to forgive and inability to comprehend the actions of the man who made her miserable, and she is castigated without a word by the author towards the end for this.

The man who causes so much misery to various people is sketched best by the author with all his faults out in the open and his temper, his dark psyche and his violence not hidden, and his virtues clearly visible for all to see but not much dwelt on, with the theme being how he is respected and feared but never loved due to the complex mix of his nature. One cannot say one would be able to deal with him better if one met him, he might not allow that to happen to one any more than he did to Susan or her daughter or Farfrae, but the author nevertheless leaves one with a deep pity for the man whose mistakes and pride and temper and more caused so much misery to others - and to him. He gets the worst punishment after all in life, no one loves him, and few sympathise, fewer respect him past his loss of stature. He has attempted to rectify his mistakes by sacrificing much and achieved much, but his nature he could not change and so he lost all by steps, including the love of the daughter that could have been his.

Thursday, November 23, 2012