The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy, Fiction, Literary, Short Stories

by Thomas Hardy

Overview

As Hardy put it, "This Somewhat Frivolous narrative was produced as an interlude between stories of a more sober design, and it was given the subtitle of a comedy to indicate -- though not quite accurately -- the aim of the performance."

Ethelberta Chickerel is the daughter of a lady's maid, who forms a liaison with a knight's son who promptly dies. His mother reconciles to Ethelberta, has her educated and brought into society, and then dies herself, leaving Ethelberta the townhouse and nothing else. She must make her way in the world by her wits, with the native instincts of a girl of the lower classes underlying the veneer of sophistication, as she attempts to secure her future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603127264
Publisher:	Aegypan
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Pages:	332
Sales rank:	1,024,396
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin. Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex; initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Hardy's Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England. He destroyed the manuscript of his first, unplaced novel, but -- encouraged by mentor and friend George Meredith -- tried again. His important work took place in an area of southern England he called Wessex, named after the English kingdom that existed before the Norman Conquest.

Date of Birth:

June 2, 1840

Date of Death:

January 11, 1928

Place of Birth:

Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, England

Place of Death:

Max Gate, Dorchester, England

Education:

Served as apprentice to architect James Hicks

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The Hand of Ethelberta is … a portrait of two artists – Ethelberta Petherwin and Thomas Hardy …"
—Tim Dolin