Thomas Hardy

Le maçon Jude Fawley rêve d'une vie meilleure et s'acharne à acquérir le savoir et la culture. La passion qui naît en lui pour sa cousine Sue, mariée à un maître d'école, va lui faire entrevoir d'autres horizons de bonheur et les conduire tous deux à la perdition. Ce roman est une méditation sur les désirs qui déchirent l'être humain, l'opposant à lui-même autant qu'aux lois sociales qui l'entourent. La vérité des personnages et du drame, l'épaisseur de l'univers social où ils évoluent, la lucidité du regard posé sur eux font de ce livre, au même titre que Tess d'Urberville, un chef d'oeuvre.

non-exchangeable & non-refundable

Powerful and controversial from its 1895 publication to the present, "Jude the Obscure" scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate. Between its frank portrayals of sexuality and its indictments of marriage, religion, and England's class system, the novel offended a broad swath of readers. Its heated reception led the embittered author to renounce fiction, turning his considerable talents ever afterward to writing poetry. Hardy's last novel depicts a changing world, where a poor stonemason can aspire to a university education and a higher place in society -- but where in reality such dreams remain unattainable. Thwarted at every turn, Jude Hawley abandons his hopes, is trapped into an unwise marriage, and pursues a doomed relationship with his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. The lovers find themselves equally incapable of living within the conventions of their era and of transcending its legal and moral strictures. Hailed by modern critics as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought, Hardy's tragic parable continues to resonate with readers.

Introduction and Notes by Norman Vance, Professor of English, University of Sussex. Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional cousin, Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcasts proves undermining, and when tragedy occurs, Sue has no resilience and Jude is left in despair. Hardy's portrait of Jude, the idealist and dreamer who is a prisoner of his own physical nature, is one of the most haunting and desperate of his creations. Jude the Obscure is a dark yet compassionate account of the insurmountable frustrations of human existence which reflect Hardy's yearning for the spiritual values of the past and his despair at their decline.

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Michael Henchard est un jeune saisonnier qui vit avec sa femme et leur fille dans un village du Wessex. Un jour, sous l'empire de l'alcool, après une violente dispute conjugale, il décide de les vendre toutes deux a un marin de passage. Dégrisé, il mesure l'étendue du désastre... Dix-huit années après, devenu un marchand prospère, Michael est élu maire de la ville de Casterbridge. Celui que tous croient veuf s'apprête a se marier. C'est alors que le passe resurgit...

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.

Maître dans l'art de décortiquer " Les petites ironies de la vie ", Thomas Hardy possédait aussi le talent de se pencher, en quelques pages, sur les grandes. Ces instants où une existence bascule, ces décisions dont il faudra à jamais supporter les conséquences, ces éclairs de lucidité qui pétrifient, il s'en fit le conteur subtil. Et si L'Angleterre qu'il nous dépeint a disparu, ses personnages gardent intact cet étrange et universel don de nous émouvoir. Quand un géant du roman se métamorphose en nouvelliste, les masques de ses courtes tragédies prennent un relief inoubliable.

Non exchangeable & non refundable

Non exchangeable & non refundable