Desperate Remedies

Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
796K words
Chapters
80

Tags

English Originals Social Fiction Suspense ThrillerSocial ObservationLove EntanglementsHuman NatureFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Desperate Remedies by Thomas HardyAuthor: Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 2, 2004

Editor's review

Desperate Remedies is the first novel Thomas Hardy published. Markedly melodramatic in the Victorian manner, it revolves around secrets, marriage, property, and hidden emotions, with densely planted suspense and a fast-moving plot. Compared with Hardy's later, more somber Wessex novels, it reads more like a genre exercise, yet already shows the beginnings of the fatalism and social pressure found in his later work. For readers curious about where Hardy's writing began, or interested in Victorian popular fiction, it offers a direct entry: the structure is suspense-driven, the relationships are complex, and there are plenty of dramatic turns. It works well as supplementary Hardy reading and as a primary text for studying nineteenth-century British novel genres. Note that it is not Hardy's most mature representative work; its language and narrative pacing bear the marks of its era.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read it first as melodrama, focusing on how suspense is set up and revealed, rather than rushing to compare it with Hardy's later work.
  2. As you read, note the relationship among marriage, property, and secrets; these themes recur throughout Hardy's later writing.
  3. If the original English is difficult, learn a little about Victorian social background before entering the text.
  4. After finishing, compare it with other major Hardy novels to observe changes in narrative technique and theme.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book one of Hardy's representative works? No. It is the first novel Hardy published, with clear Victorian melodramatic features. It is usually seen as a way to understand the starting point of his writing rather than a representative work of his mature period.
Do I need to know Hardy's other works before reading it? No. The book can be read on its own, and reading it first actually helps you observe how Hardy's later style took shape. If you have already read his major works, the differences will be easier to see.
Is this book suitable as an entry-level read in the original English? It depends on the reader's level. The English carries nineteenth-century narrative habits, with many long sentences and period expressions. It suits readers with some experience of English fiction; complete beginners may need support.

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About the author

Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 Author

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was an English novelist and poet whose career spanned the Victorian era and the twentieth century. The library holds 31 of his works, including representative titles such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Jude the Obscure, and the poetry collection Late Lyrics and Earlier, with Many Other Verses. His novels are mostly set in the rural southwest of England, portraying ordinary people struggling against fate, social custom, and emotional entanglement in a somber yet compassionate tone. After the controversy surrounding Jude the Obscure, he turned mainly to poetry. Hardy's work has had a lasting influence on later English fiction. Public information about his life and nationality is limited, so this note is based on the works held and general literary knowledge.