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Life's Little Ironies (Wordsworth Classics) [Paperback]

Thomas Hardy (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Price: £1.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Customers buy this book with Wessex Tales (Wordsworth Classics) by Thomas Hardy Paperback £1.99

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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (1 Aug 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1853261785
  • ISBN-13: 978-1853261787
  • Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.7 x 1.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 14,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

This Wordsworth Edition includes an exclusive Introduction and Notes by Dr Claire Seymour, University of Kent at Canterbury.

The proverbial phrase 'life's little ironies' was coined by Hardy for his third volume of short stories. These tales and sketches possess all the power of his novels: the wealth of description, the realistic portrayal of the quaint lore of Wessex, the 'Chaucerian' humour and characterisation, the shrewd and critical psychology, the poignant estimate of human nature and the brooding sense of wonder at the essential mystery of life.

The tales which make up Life's Little Ironies tenderly re-create a rapidly vanishing rural world and scrutinise the repressions of fin-de-siecle bourgeois life. They share the many concerns of Hardy's last great novels, such as the failure of modern marriage and the insidious effects of social ambition on the family and community life. Ranging widely in length and complexity, they are unified by Hardy's quintessential irony, which embraces both the farcical and the tragic aspects of human existence.

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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Many people consider Thomas Hardy to be a great novelist and poet; but he is equally a great story writer. These are 19th Century stories; so they do not start in the middle and expect the reader to infer what the author leaves out; they are are not pared to the bone. They start at the beginning, describing vividly the setting of the place and the history of the leading characters, and build up to a proper conclusion. Without trying to derogate 20th Century writers like Hemmingway, these stories are all the better for it. They could have been easily extended to fully blown novels. They have all the touches that one expects from Hardy: vivid decription of Wessex, tragedy untouched by sentimentality; a solid style with touches of literary genius; and a perceptive understanding of the relationship between men and women, people and their environment, and a keen understanding of rustic life just before it was swept away by the arrival of the radio, the telephone, the motor vehicle, electricity and other aspects of modernity. If you love Jude or Tess, read this book. As soon as I had finished it, I hunted down his other short story collections, Wessex Tales, etc., which are just as good.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Worth reading just for the truly haunting 'Fiddler of the Reels' alone. Who or what was Mop? And when I re-read this last night, for the first time for over thirty years, Ned Hipcroft's grief and despair rolled over me as though it were my own. Hardy may be uneven, but he has moments when he just leaves everyone else standing, and this is one of the best of them.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Hardy 22 May 2010
By Lj Lord
Format:Paperback
Look, I just have to say that anything written by Hardy has got to be worth a read!
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