VICTORIAN TRILOGY: Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta & A Laodicean (Illustrated Edition) (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Three Romance Classics in One VolumeBy Thomas Hardy
Length49h 48m
About this audiobook
This illustrated Victorian trilogy gathers three of Thomas Hardy's most intriguing early and middle-period experiments: Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta, and A Laodicean. Together they reveal Hardy testing the possibilities of sensation fiction, social comedy, and architectural romance within the broader currents of Victorian realism. From secrets, inheritance plots, and melodramatic suspense to questions of class performance, courtship, modern technology, and the uneasy survival of the past, these novels display a writer refining the narrative strategies that would later define his major Wessex fiction. Thomas Hardy, trained as an architect before becoming one of the nineteenth century's most searching novelists, brought to fiction a precise eye for buildings, landscapes, and social structures. His own movement between rural Dorset, professional London, and literary ambition informs these works' recurring concern with displacement, aspiration, and the pressure exerted by convention. The trilogy shows Hardy before full canonical consolidation, but already deeply preoccupied with fate, gender, status, and historical change. This volume is recommended for readers who wish to see Hardy's imagination in formation, beyond the best-known tragedies. It will especially reward students of Victorian fiction, admirers of literary experimentation, and anyone interested in how popular genres could be transformed into subtle studies of modern identity.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics, Romance
Length49 hrs 48 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 20, 2017
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1VICTORIAN TRILOGY: Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta & A Laodicean (Illustrated Edition) (Annotated)
2Introduction
3Author Biography
4Historical Context
5Synopsis (Selection)
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6VICTORIAN TRILOGY: Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta & A Laodicean (Illustrated Edition)
7Desperate Remedies
82. Evening
93. Four To Five P.m.
105. Midnight
112. Morning
123. The Fifth of March
133. From Five To Eight O’clock P.m.
14The Hand of Ethelberta
158. Christopher’s Lodgings — The Grounds About Rookington
1617. Ethelberta’s House
1725. The Royal Academy — The Farnfield Estate
1831. Knollsea — A Lofty Down — A Ruined Castle
1937. Knollsea — An Ornamental Villa
2043. The Railway — The Sea — The Shore Beyond
2147. Enckworth and its Precincts — Melchester
22A Laodicean
23George Somerset (pt. 1)
24George Somerset (pt. 2)
25Dare and Havill
26De Stancy (pt. 1)
27De Stancy (pt. 2)
28Somerset, Dare and De Stancy
29De Stancy and Paula (pt. 1)
30De Stancy and Paula (pt. 2)
31Paula
32Analysis
33Reflection
34Memorable Quotes
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