HARDY THOMAS

(P/B) THE TRUMPET MAJOR
With an Introduction and Notes by Charles P.C. Pettit. Thomas Hardy's only historical novel, The Trumpet Major is set in Wessex during the Napoleonic Wars. Hardy skilfully immerses us in the life of the day, making us feel the impact of historical events on the immemorial local way of life - the glamour of the coming of George III and his soldiery, fears of the press-gang and invasion, and the effect of distant but momentous events like the Battle of Trafalgar. He interweaves a compelling, bitter-sweet romantic love story of the rivalry of...
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ΔΥΟ ΜΑΤΙΑ ΓΑΛΑΝΑ
Το "Δύο μάτια γαλανά", το πιο αυτοβιογραφικό από όλα τα μυθιστορήματα του Τόμας Χάρντυ, παρουσιάζει την ιστορία της όμορφης και ευεπηρέαστης Έλφριντ Σουάνκορτ, η οποία νιώθει τα πρώτα σκιρτήματα του έρωτα και βρίσκεται ανάμεσα σε δύο μνηστήρες: τον νεαρό, ταλαντούχο αρχιτέκτονα Στήβεν Σμιθ και τον ώριμο, μορφωμένο κριτικό Χένρυ Νάιτ. Ταυτόχρονα, για να διεκδικήσει την ευτυχία της πρέπει να κρατήσει ένα μυστικό, το οποίο απειλεί να προδώσει μια γυναίκα που την εχθρεύεται, καταστρέφοντας έτσι τα όνειρά της. Με γλώσσα γλαφυρή, ασκώντας μια υπ...
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THE WITHERED ARM
A woman and a man... words of love whispered on a summer night. Later, there's a child, but no wedding-ring. And then the man leaves the first woman, finds a younger woman, marries her... It's an old story. Yes, it's an old, old story. It happens all the time - today, tomorrow, a hundred years ago. People don't change. But this story, set among the green hills of southern England, has something different about it. Perhaps it is only a dream, or perhaps it is magic - a kind of strange dark magic that begins in the world of dreams and phanto...
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(P/B) THE WITHERED ARM
A jealous lover's curse and an ingenious party trick feature in these two suspenseful stories set in Hardy's imaginary Wessex. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) WESSEX TALES
"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. In insisting on the unusual nature of any story worth the telling, and with his gift for irony and compassion, Hardy achieves more in the genre of the short story than any English novelist before him....
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ΜΙΑ ΕΥΦΑΝΤΑΣΤΗ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ

(P/B) THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE
'You are ambitious, Eustacia - no not exactly ambitious, luxurious. I ought to be of the same vein, to make you happy, I suppose' Tempestuous Eustacia Vye passes her days dreaming of passionate love and the escape it may bring from the small community of Egdon Heath. Hearing that Clym Yeobright is to return from Paris, she sets her heart on marrying him, believing that through him she can leave rural life and find fulfilment elsewhere. But she is to be disappointed, for Clym has dreams of his own, and they have little in common with Eustac...
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(H/B) TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES
Tess Durbeyfield, an innocent village girl, is seduced by a wealthy rake, Alec D'Urberville. Though he makes her pregnant she does not love him and and leaves him to return to her home in disgrace. Some time after the baby's death Tess meets her true love Angel Clare, but they cannot escape the consequences of the past. An unforgettably powerful tragedy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the great classics of the late nineteenth century. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. The first of his works set in Wessex, Hardy's novel of swiftpassion and slow courtship is imbued with his ...
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(H/B) THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE
Drunk and bitter at the world, the young Michael Henchard sells his wife to a sailor at Weydon Priors fair. The next morning he vows to give up drink and mend his terrible ways. Twenty years later he is mayor of Casterbridge, a rich and important figure who little suspects the past is about to rear up and attack him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a masterpiece of Victorian literature, bringing the classical forms of tragedy into the modern world with striking force, showing a proud and noble man overwhelmed by his past and the forces of fat...
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(H/B) THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR
This is a selection of the finest Hardy stories, including from Lifes Little Ironies The Sons Veto, A Tragedy of Two Ambitions, To Please His Wife and The Fiddler of the Reels; from Wessex Tales An Imaginative Woman, The Melancholy Hussar and The Distracted Preacher; and from A Group of Noble Dames The First Countess of Wessex. Hardys wonderfully evocative tales tell of a rural world that is lost, but whose verities still engage the reader today. (From the publisher)...
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THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

(P/B) TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE
This 1886 novel may be Hardy's most intense and gripping narrative. We first see the central character, Michael Henchard, as a drunken and unemployed hay-trusser who sells his wife Susan and his daughter Elizabeth-Jane at a fair. When he is eventually reunited with the two, he has become the contented and prosperous mayor of a thriving market town. But the downward spiral begins. Henchard's fall is hastened by a series of coincidences and quarrels, and by his own jealousy and pride. Though the perspective on events that Hardy gives us is o...
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(P/B) JUDE THE OBSCURE
Jude Fawley’s hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking ‘New Woman’. Refusing to marry merely for the sake of religious convention, Jude and Sue decide instead to live together, but they are shunned by society and poverty soon threatens to ruin them. Jude the Obscure, Hardy’s last novel, caused a public furo...
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ΦΙΛΟΙ - ΣΥΜΠΟΛΙΤΕΣ
Στους «Συμπολίτες» - δημοσιεύτηκε τον Απρίλιο του 1880 -, όπου αφηγείται τον συναρπαστικό αλλά δραματικό έρωτα του Μπάρνετ και της Λούσι, ο Χάρντυ είναι σαν να μας λέει: «Μόλις παρουσιαστεί η ευκαιρία, αρπάξτε την!» Ένα λάθος βήμα μπορεί να αποβεί μοιραίο. Αν χάσεις την ευκαιρία την πρώτη φορά, η τιμωρία θα είναι σκληρή και μακροχρόνια. Η νουβέλα αυτή είναι ένα αντιπροσωπευτικό δείγμα του έργου του, που μας αφηγείται τραγικές περιπέτειες ψυχών οι οποίες ζουν στην απομόνωση και προσπαθούν να βρουν τη δικαίωσή τους στον έρωτα, ο οποίος όμως ...
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(P/B) A MERE INTERLUDE
San Francisco is the best city in the world. The evidence? Fantastic food, great bars, thriving arts, beautiful people - all packed into a city just seven miles by seven, with stunning views of bay and ocean. Whether you're eating burritos or cordon bleu, coming out in the Castro or tripping out in Golden Gate Park, our team of local writers take you straight to the city's finest. The San Francisco guide includes: - a critical selection of the very best places to eat and drink, so you can sample every culture of this cosmopolitan city - a...
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ΟΙ ΤΡΕΙΣ ΞΕΝΟΙ

(H/B) TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES

(H/B) THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE