The Withered Arm and Other Stories

By Thomas Hardy

Book Overview

"See if she is dark or fair and if you can notice if her hands be white; if not see if they look as though she had ever done housework or are milker's hands like mine."

So Rhoda Brook the abandoned mistress of Farmer Lodge is jealous to discover details of his new bride in 'The Withered Arm' the title story in this selection of Hardy's finest short stories. Hardy's first story 'Destiny and a Blue Cloak' was written fresh from the success of Far From the Madding Crowd. Beautiful in their own right these stories are also testing-grounds for the novels in their controversial sexual politics their refusal of romance structures and their elegiac pursuit of past lost loves.
Several of the stories in The Withered Arm were collected to form the famous volume Wessex Tales (1888) the first time Hardy denoted 'Wessex' to describe his fictional world. The Withered Arm is the first of a new two-volume selection of Hardy's short stories edited with an introduction and notes by Kristin Brady.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140435328
• ISBN13: 9780140435320
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great Collection

Thomas Hardy is best known for novels and poems but was also one of England's best short story writers. Besides mastering the form itself, Hardy used short stories as a training ground for themes and plot devices that often ended up in the novels, making them all the more interesting for fans and scholars. This has nine stories spread over about 350 pages - about a sixth of his total -, including some of his best and best-known. The selection is strong and representative, proceeding chronologically from Hardy's first published story until 1888's Wessex Tales, his first collection. Fans of the novels will certainly want these, but whether they will want this collection is an open question, as most of the stories are widely available. One plus is that it has two - "Destiny and a Blue Cloak" and "The Thieves Who Couldn't Help Sneezing" that are hard to find. They are very early and minor, but fans will certainly appreciate them. Perhaps more importantly, there is a wealth of bonus material: a general introduction stating the purpose of this Penguin Hardy series; a Hardy chronology; a map of Hardy's fictional Wessex; a scholarly introduction with substantial background on the stories and some critical analysis; suggestions for further reading; a history of the texts; detailed endnotes; a history of Hardy short stories; the original illustrations; and a glossary illuminating the heavy use of dialect and other unusual words. Those wanting more stories must of course look elsewhere, but one would have to search very hard for one of comparable length with as much bonus material. One oddity is that, in contrast to nearly all editions, the texts are from first volume publication rather than final edits. This may deter some, but hard-cores and scholars will probably welcome the distinction, and the notes in any event detail changes. The stories vary in quality and significance. "Destiny" is Hardy's first real published story and is in many ways the blueprint for not only later short stories but much of his other work. Like more famous work, it has a female protagonist and focuses on forbidden love, but it is truly remarkable how many themes and philosophical concerns later fleshed out are already here. Hardy's interest in fate, chance, irony, and the universe's profound indifference toward humanity are on clear display. Much of the characterization and strong sense of place he became known for are also present. So is Hardy's penchant for complex plots; it is near-astonishing how much he could pack into a short work. This is also a good example of how he used shorts to test elements for novels, as he reused the major plot twist in his novel The Hand of Ethelberta. "Destiny" may lack the grand, tragic sweep of Hardy's best work but certainly has it in embryo; this would be one of most writers' best pieces. A children's story with an obvious moral and some humor, "The Thieves" is probably the most light-hearted work from a writer synonymous with dark ones.

"Exercising misery to its fullest extent."

In this first of a two-volume collection of Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) short stories, Editor Kristin Brady (THE FIDDLER OF THE REELS AND OTHER STORIES 1888-1900) has drawn nine short stories from 1874 to 1888, the year Hardy published his first collection of short fiction, WESSEX TALES. During this period, Hardy also published FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (1874), THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878), THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE(1886) and THE WOODLANDERS (1887). With all the pathos of and these Victorian classics, his short stories deliver ideas and themes that receive greater development in Hardy's novels. This book, which includes an excellent history together with appendices of the texts, may be read as a collection of Thomas Hardy's measures of human misery. In "Destiny and a Blue Coat," "The Thieves Who Couldn't Help Sneezing," "The Distracted Preacher," "Fellow-Townsmen," "The Three Strangers," "The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid," "Interlopers at the Knap," "The Waiting Supper," and "The Withered Arm," his characters reveal their "rich capacity for misery . . . exercised to its fullest extent" (p. 126). For Hardy, life and love were synonymous with human suffering. Okay, so even if Hardy composes his fiction using only the black notes on the keyboard, his stories are certain to satisy readers (like me), who love reading Victorian literature. G. Merritt