Desperate Remedies

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Desperate Remedies
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Thomas Hardy
Edited by Mary Rimmer
Introduction by Mary Rimmer
Notes by Mary Rimmer
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:512
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenreLiterary studies - c 1800 to c 1900
Literary studies - fiction, novelists and prose writers
Classic fiction (pre c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9780140435238
ClassificationsDewey:823.8
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publication Date 26 February 1998
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Hardy described Desperate Remedies as a tale of 'mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity'. Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston. Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Hardy's first published novel, and in it he draws blithely on the 'sensation novel' perfected by Wilkie Collins. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when Desperate Remedies appeared anonymously in 1871. In its depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius.

Author Biography

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928) was recognized, and even revered, as the major literary figure of his time by his contemporaries. Most of his major novels are available in Penguin Classics. MARY RIMMER is Associate Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. She has written extensively on Hardy, and is currently writing a book on narrative voice in Hardy.