Desperate remedies
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-19282010
Book
A novel that features a racy specimen of the genre, replete with sudden death, dark mysteries, intriguing clues, fire and storm, flight and pursuit. With an Introduction, Notes and Bibliography by Michael Irwin, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Kent, Canterbury. The young Thomas Hardy, working as an architect, but fired with literary ambition, tried for years to get into print. He finally succeeded with Desperate Remedies, a 'sensation novel' in the mode of Wilkie Collins. Here was a racy specimen of the genre, replete with sudden death, dark mysteries, intriguing clues, fire and storm, flight and pursuit. Anyone who enjoys The Woman in White is likely to enjoy Desperate Remedies. But that is only half the story. Hardy contrived also, in this unlikely context, to give a first airing to various of the ideas and technical experiments which were to characterise his later fiction. The result is an exhilaratingly uneven work: at any point in the narrative some brilliant passage of description or metaphor may burst out like a firework. Desperate Remedies can be relished both for what it is and for what it promises.
Main title:
Desperate remedies / Thomas Hardy ; with an introduction by Michael Irwin.
Author:
Work:
Imprint:
Ware, Hertfordshire : Wordsworth Editions, 2010.
Collation:
xvi, 340 p. : map ; 20 cm.
Series title:
Notes:
Desperate remedies originally published, London : Tinsley Bros., 1871."Though an unconnected course of adventure is what most frequently occurs in nature, yet the province of the romance-writer being artificial, there is more required from him than a mere compliance withe the simplicity of reality.--Sir Walter Scott"--t.p.Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:
9781840226348 (pbk)
Dewey class:
823.8
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
3235790