The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales (English Library) [Paperback]

Hardy's novels continue to be justly popular and his poetry (which he considered his most important work)has worn well with the critics, but the short stories deserve a much wider audience than they have received. This collection, which contains some of his best, provides a fine introduction to the dark vision of the late Victorian master. The title story is uncharacteristically happy, a pastoral piece in which Hardy tells a comic tale about a young woman's unexpected talent for criminal activity. The other stories are much more representative, being concerned with the perils of love, the cruelty of convention and the tragic vulnerability of human aspirations to the whims of fate. Many of the tales are also wrapped in the Gothic and even grotesque trappings that Hardy seemed to favour when the mood was upon him. This collection gives Bram Stoker and Stephen King a run for their money, featuring a corpse with a stake driven through its heart, a new bride spending her wedding night with her new husband by her side and the corpse of her first husband in the next room, parricide, suicide and kidnapping. The mood of the pieces varies from the sunny high jinks of "The Distracted Preacher" to the wrenching tragedy of "A Son's Veto" and the relentless horror of "The Withered Arm." Overall, this group of tales gives the newcomer to Hardy an excellent introduction to his talents as a storyteller, and fans of his novels will enjoy the opportunity to see the master at work on a smaller stage.

If you are familiar with Hardy, you probably know him as a brilliant novelist and possibly, a poet (he excelled in both areas). However, he shone in the short story form as well, as this collection vividly demonstrates. This book includes some of Hardy's best known and most poignant stories, including the spectacular 'Grave by the Handpost' and the 'Fiddler of the Reels,' which echo with the tragic themes prevalent in his later novels. Hardy's prose style is incredibly moving and poetic in his short stories. He used words to serve a purpose, which is more than I can say for a number of Victorian writers. These stories are a wonderful introduction to Hardy if you have not had any exposure to his 'great' works. And don't give up with them! Although his style is moderately cumbersome, I'm sure you will find his socially-aware ideas surprisingly modern and unbelievably brutal in their rawness. Hardy is a classic writer who no one should miss reading. If you want a brilliant introduction to his work (but beware, reading these stories will drain you!) I highly recommend this collection. You will also enjoy it immensely if you've only experienced Hardy the novelist. A note to teachers: I am a high school student, and I know that my peers would have appreciated Hardy much more if he had been presented to them through these tremendous stories, rather than through his novels. I am a devout Hardy fanatic, but know people with short attention spans have difficulty appreciating his novels. Introducing Hardy to your students through his stories (I particularily recommend the Fiddler of the Reels) might allow you to cover more ground.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is one of England's greatest novelists and poets. His short stories, however, are not as well known. This volume from Penguin presents several of his little gems. Many of the stories first appeared in magazines or were collected in his "Life's Little Ironies" and "Wessex Tales" volumes. Each of these stories will hold your attention. They are well crafted as the master of irony focuses on his mythical Wessex and the fictional men and women who inhabit its borders.
The stories are:
1. The Distracted Preacher-this story deals with a young Weslyan minister who becomes involved with Lizzie a smuggler. The story is filled with adventure as they seek to avoid revenue agents. Does the mismatched couple wed? Read this tale and learn.
2. A Mere Interlude-Baptista Trewen is a bored young teacher. She is about to be married to a richer, older man but before going home for the ceremony she is courted again by an old flame named Charles Stow. On impulse the two wed but he drowns! Baptista then weds old Mr. Heddegan not telling him that she is a widow. In a weird scene these two honeymoon in the same seaside hotel where Charles Stow's lifeless body is residing
in the next room to the honeymoon suite! Baptista, therefore, sleeps between her dead and her breathing husband!. Baptista confesses the situation to her elderly mate Heddegan. He reveals that he has four children of his own! Baptista ends up as their stepmother and teacher! Irony upon irony in this ingenious little tale!
3. The Withered Arm-A milkmaid named Rhoda Brook is forsaken by her lover and the father of her child whose name is Mr. Lodge. Years later, Lodge brings home his beautiful young bride Gertrude. Intense jealousy leads Rhoda to have a dream of her rival. Gertrude's arm then becomes withered due to the curse placed on it by Rhoda. Gertrude believes the Wessex legend that if she touches the corpse of a recently hanged criminal her malady will be cured. She visits Casterbridge on the day of the execution of a young man. She discovers, to her horror,that both Lodge and his erstwhile lover Rhoda are there as well! The criminal was their love child! Gertrude dies of shock while her husband flees town. Rhoda remains a milkmaid. This is a grisly story!
4.A Tragedy of Two Ambitions tells the story of the Halborough brothers. They become ministers but seek to keep quiet the fact that their old father is a drunk. One night Dad drowns within their hearing but they refuse to help him. Their sister weds a rich landowner. The boys have their lives tortured by their cruel act toward their father.
5. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion-This tragic love story between an English maiden and a German soldier during the Napoleonic wars is evocative of the beautiful countryside of Wessex. The story may even bring a tear to your eyes. Young love and longing for home led to tragic events.
6. Barbara of the House of Grebe-Barbara loves Edward a Byronic looking man. He leaves her for a year on the Grand Tour. He is horribly disfigured in a fire in Italy. He returns to England but Barbara cannot stand to look at him due to his disfigured face. She is wed to Lord Uplandowers having several children with him. This cruel man learns that Barbara has a statue of her lost lover Edward. He has an artist steal the statue and make it look disfigured in exactly the way Edward was when Barbara last saw him. Edward dies after his dismissal by Barbara who leads a sad life with her odious husband.
7. On the Western Circuit tells the story of a London man about town lawyer named Charles Bradford Raye. While lingering in a Wessex town following work at an assizes he is smitten with the beautiful girl Anne. When he leaves town she wants to write him love letters but cannot due to her illiteracy. She has her friend the sophisticated Edith Harnham act as her ghost writer. Edith has herself fallen in love with Charles after seeing him in their village. Edith is in a loveless marriage. The story ends with everyone learning the truth. Edith does not leave her husband. Charles is tied to Anne in a marriage in which his true love is Edith.Another of life's little ironies has been enacted under the indifferent Wessex skies.
8. The Son's Veto deals with a housemaid who marries a clergyman. She forsakes her plebian lover to do so. Later this man named Sam Hobson returns to the newly widowed Sophy pleading to marry her and carry her back to her home far from London. She does not do so in order to please her censorious and priggish son who becomes a clergyman.
9. The Fiddler of the Reels concerns Wat Ollamoor a lady's man adept at playing a fiddle at social events. A young girl named Caroline Aspent becomes smitten with him. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to Ollamoor's daughter. She then weds Ned Hipcoft a former lover. One day the wicked Ollamoor turns up! He kidnaps the girl from the Hipcrofts. He and the girl are never seen again.
10. An Imaginative Woman-Ella Marchmill writes bad poetry. She fallls in love with poet whom she never meets but admires. When he commits suicide she has a lock of his hair preserved for her secret adoration. She dies in childbirth leading her fatuous husband believe that the child looks like poet Robert Trewe.Another sad story.
11. The Grave by the Handpost-An old soldier persuades his son to go into the military during the time of the Napoleonic wars. The boy does so but hates it! As a result, the father grows gloomy and commits suicide. He is buried at the handpost outside a village. The son has since become a great soldier retiring to the town of his youth. When he learns the story of his father's demise and how his corpse was not allowed to be buried on church property he too becomes suicidal and kills himself. A tragic tale of Wessex life.
Many of these stories have gothic elements which shock yet absorb the attention of the reader. The stories are written in an understandable style evocative of the lost world of Wessex rural life. These Hardy tales are excellent reading. Enjoy them!