A while ago I posted about Thomas Hardy and Tess of the D’Urbervilles where I promised to do a follow up with a few of his other books. Without any further introduction, here they are:

The Mayor of Casterbridge – four stars

A young man, Michael Henchard wanders the country looking for employment. He enters a small village, closely followed by his wife Susan who is holding their baby daughter Elisabeth-Jane in her arms. They enter the county fair and decide to get something to eat. Henchard drinks, a little too much as as often been the case previously, and in a fit of drunken anger he ends up selling his wife and child for five guineas to a passing sailor.

When sobering up, his remorse is so great that he searches far and wide for them but to no avail. He walks into a church and makes a vow of sobriety. He is to be sober for twenty-one years, his age at the time. After taking the vow he decides to settle down in the area, so his wife and child will always be able to find him if they ever decided to forgive him and come back.

About eighteen years have gone since that fateful night and Mr Henchard has managed to establish himself as the pillar of society, a successful businessman and mayor of the town of Casterbridge. His name is one uttered in great respect by everyone. But the secret shame of his past still haunts him.

Then comes the day when everything changes. A young Scotsman, Donald Farfrae, enters the scene and saves Henchard’s business from imminent ruin. Mr Farfrae is young and handsome, intellectual, curious, ambitious and a model for the future. Henchard feels strongly and warmly that Farfrae must stay in town and he manages to convince him to remain and work for him.

That very same day, Susan comes back, with the now young and beautiful Elisabeth-Jane in tow. Susan is not out for revenge, she wants to make peace with her husband, and despite them never having loved each other in the first place, Henchard wishes nothing more than to take her back, and redeem himself from the greatest mistake of his life. Henchard has unfortunately just entered an engagement to marry a woman named Lucetta, and finds himself forced by guilt to break it off, despite being very fond of her. He confesses his entire messy history to Farfrae and begs for his help. As Henchard begins to, little by little, damage his reputation and lose control of the life he has so carefully managed to build for himself, his young friend unwittingly surpasses him in the regards of the townspeople and even his own family. Tension and animosity ensues.

Henchard is not a very likeable or pleasant man, but he tries hard to be good and to do what is right. He is arrogant, at times unpleasant, and he has a temper, but he is aware of it, and he tries so very, very hard.

It is impressive that we feel compelled to sympathise with Henchard despite all his many faults, and we can’t help but root for him and hope for him to figure it all out. However, this book was written by Thomas Hardy, so we know Henchard’s life will not be simple and sprinkled with roses. The story is so wonderfully Hardy-esque; If you find yourself the main character in a Hardy book, you can be sure that the universe will make you suffer, a whole lot.

The melodrama is strong in this one and convenience and fate plays a large role in Henchard’s life. Overheard conversations, love triangles, deathbed confessions, the list of events and misunderstandings is long. The story is simple in itself. The complexity and plot twists comes entirely from the characters. How they entangle themselves in secrets and lies and their own flaws. How they unintentionally flagellate and make themselves the victims of their own shortcomings.

In short, Henchard is a creature of great feeling that has for years beaten himself up for a great mistake. His fight for redemptions blinds him to everything else. This book was very good, and not only a little sad.

Under the Greenwood Tree – three stars

This was one of the earliest novels by Hardy and it shows. It is also one of the shortest ones, and for that I am grateful.

If it was all up to the story, the rating would be lower but Hardy has such a way of capturing the beautiful landscape, and the rural setting with the calm country life that I just couldn’t give it anything less than three stars.

The story’s premise is simple enough: in rural Mellstock, church music has always been provided by the “string choir,” a group of local men who take their duties seriously, but not always soberly. Now the new pastor has brought in a mechanical organ to replace the choir, and, as if that isn’t upheaval enough, the new organist and schoolmistress is a beautiful and educated, young woman named Fancy Day. You can imagine the turmoil, scheming, and romantic speculations.

It’s a mix of nostalgia and daydream and not at all the usual Hardy-esque misery that I enjoy and had so gotten used to.

The first beginning of the story we take a turn around the parish church and talk with a blend of friendly, and sympathetic characters. I would describe this part as the gossip chapters. We find out more about things as we’re being told about them through gossip rather than being there and seeing it for ourselves. Telling, instead of showing, is a rather frustrating part of the events of this book and just reading about people talking about other people is fun and interesting up to a point.

But there is romance blooming in the heart of Dick Dewy for the new organist and their romance is rather silly and uncomplicated.

The book has some funny scenes. The book is frighteningly optimistic compared to anything else by Hardy. Unfortunately Hardy didn’t seem to like Fancy very much and we do not really see much to make her a likeable heroine. She is vain and flighty and attracts too much attention for her own good. But I guess there’s some sweetness there, even if I don’t buy it.

The most interesting theme in the book is the very common Hardy theme of the new replacing the old. The big shift to modernisation and industrialisation that was going on in the 1840’s is clearly represented in the big shift from the rugged choir to the fancy organ, pun intended.

The names of the two main characters really put me off too, just to add that.

If I had to recommend this book, I would only recommend reading the first few sentences. Here they are, to save you some time:

To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall.

Now you can move on to something a bit more interesting.

Jude the Obscure – four stars

Unlike The Mayor of Casterbridge, this story isn’t about a flawed man getting his rightful punishment, our main character, Jude Fawley, is the victim of his circumstances in life, and the misfortune of being a creature of Hardy’s imagination.

We follow Jude from childhood, an orphan growing up with his aunt. A kind boy with a scholar’s mind. All he wants to do is learn, and being poor doesn’t put you in the right position for anything like that. He absolutely idolises the schoolmaster Richard Phillotson, and it is Phillotson that wakens the dream in Jude, to one day go to the town of Christminster and study. Phillotson leaves the village for the town, and little Jude is left behind, determined to study and one day find his way to join his old schoolmaster in the Mecca of learning and scholarly pursuits. Jude works hard mentally and physically to defy what nature had in store for him by making him a poor orphan.

What happens now, you ask. But of course, you know who wrote this story.

One day, a few years after the departure of Phillotson, lost in a book, Jude walks near a stream. At the water’s edge there are three young women and one of them catches Jude’s attention by rudely throwing some pig offals on him, as he did not notice the women on his own, as he should have. The young woman, Arabella, charms Jude into forgetting his studies and soon Jude is swept away, caught up in the rituals of courting despite not really understanding how it happened. Shortly after, Arabella secures Jude by telling him she is with child, and Jude, being the good and honest young man he is, marries Arabella, spending all the money he had saved to pay for his studies into the home he now has to make her and his expected child.

But Arabella had tricked Jude, she was never pregnant, and she tells him of her “mistaken assumption” shortly after their marriage. Jude is disappointed, and feels tricked and betrayed, and their relationship turns sour. Arabella leaves Jude in angry passion and follows her parents that have decided to emigrate to Australia. Poor on coin, but now free to move, Jude finally decides to go to Christminster. His attempts at getting into the university is met with scorn, and suggestions that he should probably stay in his place, like the poor working man that he is.

By sudden chance, Jude finds out he has a cousin in Christminster, a pretty woman named Sue. Jude tries his best not to fall in love with Sue. He knows he can not act upon his feelings, he is still a married man. But the heart wants what it wants, and Jude does everything he can to help his cousin find happiness.

Jude finds his old schoolmaster and convinces Phillotson to let Sue work with him in the school. Phillotson, although much older, falls for the pretty girl and she, being inexperienced at life and feeling obligated, accepts his advances.

Naturally Sue and Phillotson marry, and they are terribly unhappy. Sue and Phillotson know that Jude is in love with Sue. Jude is in agony. Arabella shows up and wants a divorce, or does she?

Now we have all the wheels of torture in motion.

Jude, Arabella, Sue, and Phillotson will all be working to avoid, and working to find each other throughout the book. They will make each other make bad decisions. There will be trickery. There will be misguided compassion. There will be defeat, and there will be resignation. At one point you think there might be some little happiness, only for it to be crushed so completely that you will feel nauseous.

If you only enjoy books with rainbows, unicorns, lovey-dovey conversations, and glittery happy-ever-afters, stay as far away from this book as you can.

This is the last novel Hardy wrote, disgusted by the reception of it back in the days. People were appalled and I find it so incredibly fascinating. The critique of the institute of marriage was apparently a big slap in the face to those Victorians.

The characters are more than excellent.

Arabella isn’t a purely evil woman, she is selfish, yes. But she does what she can to survive her era. She is easily impressed by flattery and attention and she isn’t afraid to bully and manipulate everyone around her to get what she wants. She is shallow but not unfeeling.

Phillotson is a kind man who just happened to be the one getting in the way of Jude and Sue. He suffers for his kindness and naïveté, thinking society won’t judge him or his personal dealings. But he is accepting when the judgement comes.

Sue is wonderfully sensitive and freethinking. She reluctantly bends to societal norms, after a good fight, and fiercely feels and expresses herself to Jude.

Oh, Jude, what did you do to deserve this story? You honest and good man. You intelligent and trusting human. You poor, poor thing.

I still have a few Hardy books that I haven’t read but they’re not on my TBR for any foreseeable future. What do you think of these books? Are you tempted to read them or is the depressive misery of it all a bit too much? Are there any books you’d like me to read and review? Please comment and let me know.