Product Description

Wessex Tales was the first collection of Hardy's short stories, and they reflect the experience of a novelist at the height of his powers. These seven tales, in which characters and scenes are imbued with a haunting realism, show considerable diversity of content, form and style, and range from fantasy to realism and from tragedy to comedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35062 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

The Wessex Tales is Hardy's mirror to England in his time.
A common theme amongst Hardy's novels is the difficulty of honest, equal relationships between men and women and this theme is continued throughout The Withered Arm, The Son's Veto, Tony Kytes, the Arch Deceiver, The Melancholy Hussar and The Distracted Preacher. In these short stories various matters get in the way of the relationships, from morals and scruples in The Distracted Preacher to social snobbery in The Son's Veto. The Son's Veto is the most effective in handling the theme of relationship between men and women. It is the most powerful and bitter story about how society affected what would have been a good relationship because of class distinction, prejudice and snobbery. Hardy's construction of this tale is almost scientific as he contrast a relationship which fails, Sophy's relationship with her son, and one which should succeed, Sophy's relationship with Sam. In addition the visual description in the Son's Veto is the most powerful. In the beginning we see exactly what the congregation saw and looked back at Sophy as the congregation did. His technique of using scenes from the past and the present blends them in perfectly giving as different perspectives of Sophy and her life. The beginning is in the present the next scene is in the past and in following scene we are back in the present. Another reason why this story is especially strong is because it combines many of the themes from the other stories. Social snobbery as in the Hussar when Phyllis is congratulated in being able to "bring Humphrey to her feet". Loveless marriage as in the Withered Arm and Tony kytes. Why this story is so powerful is that Hardy describes each character in detail so that we sympathise with them or dislike them. By the way Hardy describes Sophy at the beginning of the book we know a relationship has not worked out. She is described as "plaintive" and "sad". Hardy describes her appearance in detail and we know that she is "pretty". In addition we know about her personality, she is kind, patient and considerate. When her son criticises her grammar she does not, as Hardy comments, "retaliate and bid him wipe that crumby mouth of his." This along with the description of her character makes us side emotionally with Sophy. In contrast we dislike her son even though we do not know much of him. He seems cold and mean, criticising his mother and he seems to have no feelings whatsoever. Sam is a character that we sympathise is from the beginning when he ask Sophy to marry him to the end where he continues to be "faithful", waiting for Sophy to marry him. The vicar, Mr Twycott, we do not know much of, but what we do know seems to suggest that him and Sophy does not match very well. The vicar is described as "twenty years his Sophy's senior." They married for the wrong reasons, "Sophy did not exactly love him." Most importantly the vicar "had committed social suicide" and this led to many problems. Sophy had to move to a new area which she did not like "abandoning the pretty home...for a narrow dusty home." The biggest problem as summarised by Sophy was that, '"I am not a lady," she said sadly. "I never shall be."' Saying that she would never fit into their society, which would cause her son " great shame". Since she did not fit into their society she became bored after her husband died as she was left with no control over the money and could not make many friends as she was an invalid and because she did not "beget a respect for her among the few acquaintances she made." Hardy puts in his opinion more explicitly later: "As yet he was far from being man enough, if he ever would be, to rate these sins of hers at their true infinitesimal value beside the yearning fondness...penned up in her heart." By this Hardy means that these social etiquette's means nothing if only her son was man enough to ignore them and then he would be loved beyond comparison to the importance of these social expectations by his mother. By this Hardy also implies that anybody who could ignore these social matters could be loved and would be able to form an honest and equal relationship with this kind and "genteel" woman and this is what happens to Sam but Sophy's son remains to stubborn to allow his mother happiness to the end. The contrast but the closeness of Sophy and her Son is summarised by Hardy in the line "He couple so close and yet so far a part." This difference in character between Sam and Sophy's son is emphasised by Hardy at the end of the book. Sam's faithfulness is reiterated "the faithful Sam revived his suit with peremptoriness." In contrast the son is shown to be heartless and cold "His education had...firmly ousted his humanity" and still refuses his mother to marry even though "nobody would have been anything the worse in the world." The ending to this book is especially powerful by maintaining a distance to the event in a third person perspective he does not introduce any emotion to it explicitly but because we know the characters so well we know who the people are without having to mention any names and we have sufficiently sided with the characters to be able to use our emotions to a powerful effect. The imagery of the ending is also very powerful, the smart, angry and young priest is contrasted with the sad, humble, well-dressed and shaken Sam. Whilst the priest, Sophy's son, should be the one who should be crying, he is looking as "Black as a cloud". Throughout these short stories Hardy showcases his ability to present tragedy with the brutal honesty of a modern writer.

hardy's short stories
A must for all those who like the full length novels of Thomas Hardy. He introduces some very quirky characters and situations not usually found in the more well-known of his novels. Short stories are not as well read as they were about thirty years ago, but these are well worth reading.