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Original poster

The Mayor of Casterbridge - any Hardy fans out there?

137 replies

ipanemagirl · 18/03/2007 20:25

What can I say? Am adoring this book so much. I haven't read it for years and had forgotten how beautifully Hardy writes, am i a swoon with it and don't want to do anything but read it til the probably tragic end.
Can't even remember the end! No spoilers though please!

OP posts:
moondog · 18/03/2007 20:30

A level text for me.
Loved it.
Read Jude the Obscure a year or so ago and like you was reminded how wonderful he is.
I have told dh that we are doing Hardy's stamping ground this summer.

FrannyandZooey · 18/03/2007 20:33

Oh Jude is MUCH better

god I ADORE Hardy

moondog · 18/03/2007 20:34

lol Fran.
Pretentious? Moi?

imaginaryfriend · 18/03/2007 20:35

I love Hardy too. I've read them all now even the more obscure ones. I wish I hadn't so I could read them for the first time all over again.

Jude is my absolute all time favourite. I'm with you Franny!

FrannyandZooey · 18/03/2007 20:37

I do I just ADORE him

sorry for pretentiousness but I dooooooooo

pollypeachum · 18/03/2007 20:38

but don't you find him just a teeny bit depressing?
you just know the protagonists aren't going to end well.
i'm afraid i lost when in the "mayor" he had henchard looking out of the window at his garden and vegetation which was twisted "in vegetable agony".
i preferred "peeping tom".

FrannyandZooey · 18/03/2007 20:39

God no I LOVE the depressing bits; they are so SATISFYINGLY DREADFUL

the rabbit caught in the trap OH GODDDDDDDD

why have one child die when you can kill the whole lot off OH GODDDDDDDDDDD

dying while listening to your wife chatting up the doctor OH GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

FrannyandZooey · 18/03/2007 20:40

ps I am planning to spend all evening on this thread to avoid getting fkd off with people on the fruit shoot / no sugar and tv threads

so if anyone wants me I will be here

pollypeachum · 18/03/2007 20:41

oh fair enough if you insist!!!
i'm not made of emotionally stern stuff. have to watch american sitcoms to get to sleep or have nightmares!

Original poster
ipanemagirl · 18/03/2007 20:43

ohmigod that kate winslet film of Jude?????
I wanted to throw myself under a car after watching that!
my DH adores Jude and my m and say it's genius but I don't think I can face reading a book where all the babies die I think that would be too awful for me!
It's the writing I'd forgotten about. The description of Casterbridge as a block in the middle of a field and the judge passing sentence to the sounds of sheep going baaa in the fields outside. sigh I love it so much!
I hardly ever read fiction any more but I think I might be turning back to it. If only I could switch off the tv and stop watching garbage on it!

OP posts:
pollypeachum · 18/03/2007 20:43

sugar and tv are frankly vital to a child's wellbeing.

beckybrastraps · 18/03/2007 20:45

My form teacher at school made me read Jude the Obscure and I have never forgiven him.

I feel depressed now just thinking about it...

FrannyandZooey · 18/03/2007 20:46

aaaaaargh is no thread sacred???

moondog · 18/03/2007 20:46

Nowt wrong with a bit of pretension Franny and noone does it better than my sister.
She once thought a group of blokes in a pub raving about Stallonei in 'Rambo' were talking about Rimbaud the French poet and butter in gushing madly.

Cue stunned silence.

moondog · 18/03/2007 20:47

My old drama teacher said her idea of hell was being stuck in a room with only 'Jude' to read and Leanord cohen playing.

imaginaryfriend · 18/03/2007 20:51

They are kind of depressing, well, Jude is very depressing: "Dead because we are too many" and all that. (I'm being pretentious because Franny is).

But there's a fantastic dark, chilly Englishness about them which is unlike anything else except maybe some of the Bronte's.

Ooh ... Far from the Maddening Crowd ...

pollypeachum · 18/03/2007 20:51

my ex-husband really really likes Jude

he is a depressed alcoholic but i am quite sure that there is no connection

moondog · 18/03/2007 20:52

Madding

imaginaryfriend · 18/03/2007 20:52

moondog, now, Leonard Cohen ... that's depressing ...

imaginaryfriend · 18/03/2007 20:52

oops, yes, madding

(bossy boots)

DumbledoresGirl · 18/03/2007 20:53

Casterbridge is good.

Far from the Madding Crowd was an A level text for me and I know it inside out but hated it at the time because of all the endless analysis we had to do - YAWN!

The best Hardy IMO is Tess.

imaginaryfriend · 18/03/2007 20:55

Tess is fantastic.

And my mind is getting stuck on one which begins with a young dark-haired girl on a moor who wants to marry and escape her circumstances. What the heck is that one called? I know it sounds like a lot of them but I've lost the title...

glassslipper · 18/03/2007 20:55

a level text for me too. loved it

mammaduck · 18/03/2007 20:55

Agree Tess very good.

But I did Return of the Native (or 'Ron' for short!) for A-level and that's pretty corking too. Eustacia Vye - what a name! What a woman!

moondog · 18/03/2007 20:56

Sorry IF.
Itls like the 'All that glisters is not gold thing' that everyone thinks is 'glistens'