The Mayor of Casterbridge - any Hardy fans out there?

[ipanemagirl]

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!

just gone to find my Hardy and it smells -

of what??

The Vicar of Wakefield. Yes.

The Mayor of Casterbrige. Yes.

Return of the Native. Yes.

Jude the Obscure - just save yourself the trouble and drive your car off a bridge. Ditto Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Maddening Crowd.

He left his heart in Dorset. I'm going there to dance on it for forcing me to read that depressing stuff in English class.

it has been in storage, a bit damp I guess - not sure I want to read it now - perhaps will invest in some new ones

My Hardys are the only books I have ever chucked. They literally disintegrated.

my m says that he was horrible to his wife his whole life; then she died and he spent the rest of his life writing poems about how lovely she was and how bereft he was.
Is that true?

Should we just forget that and love the books??

That saydisc stuff sounds very specialist I must go get some for mother.

I threw Jude the Obscure on a campfire.

LOL expat

It was a public health service. In the wrong hands, that book can be dangerous and tip someone over the edge into the abyss of despair.

It's a risk to the public health.

I burned The Lovely Bones, too, and danced wildly round the fire as it went up.

Also, 'We Need to Talk about Kevin'.

God MN is just rabid tonight

how can a thread about Hardy turn into a paean to book burning????

Jude the Obscure. Why did he go to all that trouble?

Why not just write: The whole world sucks. Fuck it. Just top yourselves now before it's too late?

But then Return of the Native. So lovely!

Highly recommended for Hardy fans from our loopy friends at Saydisc

CD-SDL360 Under the Greenwood Tree

and the sublimely cheerful

CD-SDL383 Sing Lustily and with good courage (gallery hymns of the period, mostly Wesley classics, with a wonderful band and Maddy Prior leading the singing)

But the Georgians also helped produce the War Poets (well, the relentless slaughter may have helped, too)...

I'm not too fussed about Hardy but I really hate that bit in Tess when the note goes astray--that's just too much.

oh marina! that's my m's birthday present sorted out!

expat - my sister was beside herself after finishing kevin and couldn't find anyone to talk to about how much it distressed her!

Angel was such a dickhead. I wanted to smack him. And again, I was forced to see the book through because we had to read it for a class.

I killed cockroaches in my dorm room with it, tho.

I must admit I hadn't really thought of eg Robert Graves or Wilfrid Owen, as Georgian lionheart, but I see your point wrt to Julian Grenville (? I have got his name right?) and certainly Edward Thomas

but is it true he hated his wife and then only loved her when she was dead???

Not to mention the way in which Hardy used his poetry to promote the war ...

That's a theory that I think has been explored in some of the many biographies I have failed to read . I think they had a seriously troubled marriage and he did write about her very differently after she died.

Grenfell?

i have never read his poetry - I think I might buy ome

Rudyard Kipling is the one who makes my flesh creep in that respect lionheart. I know he recanted after the death of his son John but his earlier war poetry is shocking and still puts me off looking into his novels in more detail

I've just been looking at the album covers on saydisc - a joyful place!!
The cover for 'cotswold craftsmen' really appeals and Kilverts Diary and the bowls of tibet.......
None picture men I would want to experience any form of intimacy with....

Grenfell - so be merry, so be dead?