The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales

by Thomas Hardy, Susan Hill (Introduction), Susan Hill (Noted by)

Overview

The darkly passionate short stories of Thomas Hardy are compelling explorations of love, social class, superstition and legend. This collection contains many of his finest and most representative, and includes "The Withered Arm," an eerie depiction of arcane witchcraft in nineteenth-century England; "Barbara of the House of Grebe," in which a beautiful man's tragic disfigurement by fire is savagely exploited by his rival; "The Son's Veto," showing the cruelty of an educated youth towards his ignorant but tender mother; and "The Distracted Preacher," the story of one man's conflict between heartfelt love and his own sense of moral and civic duty. By turns moving and poetic, and surprisingly modern and brutally macabre, these eloquent tales may be numbered among the greatest creations of Hardy's genius.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140431247
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/28/1980
Series:	Penguin Classics Series
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) wrote novels and poetry, much of which is set in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex. His novels include Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles(1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He published his first volume of poetry, Wessex Poems, in 1898 and continued to publish collections of poems until his death.

Date of Birth:

June 2, 1840

Date of Death:

January 11, 1928

Place of Birth:

Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, England

Place of Death:

Max Gate, Dorchester, England

Education:

Served as apprentice to architect James Hicks

Table of Contents

Hardy's Life and Works: a Chronology
Introduction
1. Thomas Hardy as a Short Story Writer
2. The Selected Stories

Hardy's Wessex
Map
Key to Place-Names

The Distracted Preacher
A Mere Interlude
The Withered Arm
A Tragedy of Two Ambitions
The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion
Barbara of the House of Grebe
On the Western Circuit
The Son's Veto
The Fiddler of the Reels
An Imaginative Woman
The Grave by the Handpost

Hardy's General Preface to the Wessex Edition of 1912
Bibliographical Note
Note on the Text
Explanatory Notes