A pair of blue eyes

Quatre Saisons à Mellstock est la traduction française du roman de Thomas Hardy Under the greenwood tree paru en 1872. Ce roman et sa galerie de personnages pittoresques font revivre, avec truculence, l'Angleterre rurale du début du XIXe siècle. Au travers de l'histoire d'une chorale de village ils mettent en évidence les bouleversements qui se font jour dans une société traditionnelle à l'aube de l'ère industrielle. Le ton en est léger et drôle mais laisse poindre la nostalgie d'une époque et de moeurs révolues.

Quatre saisons à Mellstock

Tess Durbeyfield était une jeune paysanne aux grands yeux innocents. Son teint éclatant fit son malheur. Placée chez les nobles d'Urberville, ses cousins d'après son père, elle est séduite et abandonnée. Aimée puis épousée, on la quitte une seconde fois parce qu'elle est trop honnête. Tess est la pureté même dans un monde perverti, la foi simple dans une société puritaine. La critique du XIXe siècle anglais est amère. Le destin des pauvres s'écoule, inexorable, celui des riches aussi. Sur l'au-delà même pèse le doute. Ici-bas seule est belle et heureuse la nature du sud de l'Angleterre. Les jeunes filles dansent dans les près le 1er mai, croquant les fraises à pleine bouche, travaillant dur les champs. Donnant le rôle de Tess à Nastassia Kinski, le cinéaste Roman Polanski a mis en images les célèbres tableaux rustiques de Thomas Hardy.

Tess d'Urberville

«Hardy a divisé lui-même son oeuvre romanesque en trois grands types. Deux d'entre eux recouvrent les romans et nouvelles "grand public", histoires d'amour ou de suspense. L'autre, intitulé "romans de caractère et d'environnement", contient toutes les oeuvres où Hardy exprime ses vues personnelles dans un contexte réaliste, c'est-à-dire, finalement, toutes celles que nous admirons encore aujourd'hui. Nos deux nouvelles appartiennent à cette catégorie. Elles partagent avec les grands romans ce sérieux et cette tristesse qui ont fait accuser Hardy de pessimisme. [...] Hardy a toujours refusé l'étiquette de pessimiste et son regard sur le monde varie d'un contexte à l'autre. Disons qu'il n'a rien d'un pessimiste doctrinaire comme Swift, pour qui l'humanité n'est qu'une "odieuse petite vermine bouffie de vanité". Hardy, au contraire, aime naturellement ses semblables. Sans pouvoir tout leur pardonner, il leur accorde son estime et sa compassion, et jamais il ne les méprise. En fait, il n'aime rien tant que d'équilibrer la part de misère humaine qui revient au destin et ce qu'il faut attribuer à la responsabilité des hommes eux-mêmes.» Bernard Jean.

Deux contes du wessex / Two stories from "wessex tales"

Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface. Their nature more precisely, and as modified by the creeping hours of time, was known only to those who watched the circumstances of her history.

Personally, she was the combination of very interesting particulars, whose rarity, however, lay in the combination itself rather than in the individual elements combined. As a matter of fact, you did not see the form and substance of her features when conversing with her; and this charming power of preventing a material study of her lineaments by an interlocutor, originated not in the cloaking effect of a well-formed manner (for her manner was childish and scarcely formed), but in the attractive crudeness of the remarks themselves. She had lived all her life in retirement-the monstrari gigito of idle men had not flattered her, and at the age of nineteen or twenty she was no further on in social consciousness than an urban young lady of fifteen.

One point in her, however, you did notice: that was her eyes. In them was seen a sublimation of all of her; it was not necessary to look further: there she lived.

A Pair of Blue Eyes

Le bras flétri

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. Here is one of Thomas Hardy's most popular novels, soon to be released as a major motion picture in May 2015.

 'I shall do one thing in this life - one thing certain - that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die'

 Independent and spirited, Bathsheba Everdene owns the hearts of three men. Striving to win her love in different ways, their relationships with Bathsheba complicate her life in bucolic Wessex - and cast shadows over their own. With the morals and expectations of rural society weighing heavily upon her, Bathsheba experiences the torture of unrequited love and betrayal, and discovers how random acts of chance and tragedy can dramatically alter life's course.

 The first of Hardy's novels to become a major literary success, Far from the Madding Crowd explores what it means to live and to love.

Far From the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy saw himself, first and foremost, as a poet, and he wrote poetry throughout his prolific and acclaimed novel-writing years before announcing in 1896 that he would no longer write novels, much to the astonishment of his worldwide readership. Instead he went on to publish eight masterful volumes of poetry - ranging from lyrics and ballads to dramatic monologues and satire - and is now regarded as one of the greatest twentieth-century poets. Choosing the best verse from each volume, the Poems of Thomas Hardy is the perfect introduction to Hardy's lyrical, soul-searching and profoundly sincere poetry, covering subjects ranging from his grief at the death of his first wife to his experiences of war. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition is edited and introduced by editor Ned Halley. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Poems of Thomas Hardy - A New Selection

When Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor villager, learns that she might be a descendant of the ancient D'Urberville family, her family pressures her to claim kinship in order to seek a portion of the fortune. But when her meeting with young Alec D'Urberville does not go as planned, she returns home a ruined woman. A kinder man, Angel Clare, seems to offer Tess a more stable life-but she must choose whether to reveal her past to him and risk losing everything, or stay quiet and live a lie. Set in the rural town of Wessex, Tess of the D'Urbervilles examines the impact of Victorian hypocrisy and societal struggles on the rural classes. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

A pair of blue eyes

Plus de livres de Thomas Hardy

Critiques

Ce livre n'a pas encore de critiques