/lit/ - Literature

>>19307818
I love what I've read from Hardy (not Tess) and I'm a grassphobic polfag chudcel. I generally agree with Hardy's positions on social issues too. Hardy seems to me like a very troubled, bitter man, that's what makes his pastoral romances and tragedies so compelling, his flawed character.

>>19307818
Tess is his weakest mature work. Try Casterbridge or Jude

What you see is what you get with Hardy. I personally love his writing and the way he writes his characters. If politics are a deal breaker for you then his other stuff won't really change your mind.

>>19308014
actually I would say Tess is the novel with the most forthright "progressivism" and others are much less likely to offend the OP. His style remains his style, however. I read Hardy for the pastoral lyricism and the bitter sense of tragedy.

>>19307818
>Is there anything more to Hardy than this "liberal ante litteram" crap or should I drop him?
If you've read a third of TOTD and that's all you've got from it you might as well drop it now, yes.

>>19308041
>offend the OP
I'm not offended by banalities like that, I'm annoyed because they're banalities and because of the hamfisted way in which they're peddled.

>>19308041
>His style remains his style
It's so bland. Maybe it's because I just read Dickens, but I expected something more tasty, ironic, enjoyable.

>>19308152
That's all there is to it, faggot. It's useless to pretend that there's some hidden depth that only you can get because you're soo much smarter. You're just pretentious little shit #87342.

>>19308210
ah yes, the only English author who was both a major novelist and major poet had a style problem. And you are clearly the perceptive one for pointing that out for the rest of us.

I thought the section where Tess was working as a milkmaid was really comfy. It made me wish I was a milkmaid in Victorian England.

I’m trans btw.

>>19308247
What's wrong with Hardyfags? Why are they so hypersensitive (and plebeian)?
Big Dickens could and did write circles around Hardy, it's not even close.

He's a big guy.

>>19308256
Comfy? I don't know, I guess it could be comfy, but I was expecting a bit more substance.

I'm 1/3 of the way and I can already see how this is going to end. Tess and Angel will get together. He will discover her shameful secret and won't be happy, but will manage to get over it by realizing that tHe PaSt DoEsN't MaTtEr and that having sex doesn't devalue a woman, etc. The guy who deflowered her either won't come back or he will only to be proven inferior to the progressive Angel.
It's a big problem if your narrative is too predictable. It means you don't have much to say and you've already made it clear in the first part of your work.

>>19308264
Dickens is your only point of reference? Read more. The two aren't even attempting similar things.

>>19307818
imagine deflowering a big titty milkmaid and not even pulling out

>>19308280

>>19308303

>>19308290
Suck a dick, mongoloid trying to sound well-read when you're just a butthurt little virgin who can't even defend his author. Who the fuck said I only read Dickens, trisomic cumguzzler? See pic related? That's you on the left.

>>19307818
>Thomas Hardy
gf made me read far from the maddening crowd, it was ok. nothing more than proto-chick lit tho.

>>19308438
>proto chick lit
That's my impression too but how the hell is this guy so highly regarded then?

What's chick lit?

>>19308445
romantic literature for girls. without knowing the author's name i could have sworn maddening crowd was a writing from one of the brontë sisters

>>19308448
I imagine a decent amount of his fanbase are women, sure. The funny thing about the Hardy the Progtard meme in this thread is how brutally accurate his depictions of women are, would be almost misogynistic if he were a lesser writer, a major theme of his writing is how the capricious nature of a single women can destroys the lives of many men, but women like to read about how awful women are, so it makes sense.

>>19308448
I think that you usually need to read a few books from the same author in order to get a read on them. If, for instance, you only read Mansfield Park you wouldn't be able to claim that you know what Austen is exactly about. Reading trends depends on reading individual pieces and establishing connections between them.

>>19308463
i agree with this, reading gets better the more you read because your latest read is informed by past ones. Hardy imo is a writer worth spending time with due to his personality and the way his "hang ups" and idiosyncrasies reveal themselves throughout his work.

>>19308474
>his "hang ups" and idiosyncrasies reveal themselves throughout his work
Yeah, but they reveal themselves with the same grace of a rhino in a china shop. Good authors are subtle, they let the readers get to the conclusions he planned for them to reach. Hardy bashes you in the face with 300 words paragraphs where he clearly says that old conventions are stupid and the cool kids reject them.

>>19308474
>his personality
At the moment, his personality seems that of a bland progressivist. Maybe in his time he was le cool rebel, but now she's just banal.

>>19307818
Hardy's prose style in Tess is top tier so I don't know what you're talking about. As for his somewhat facile politics who cares, a lot of authors interject that stuff a bit. I think in Tess there is at least an element of ambiguity in addition to the moralizing anyway; he has a tragic sensibility which is generally opposed to the praxis instinct of politics brains.

>>19308586
>Hardy's prose style in Tess is top tier
Read more.

>>19308290
>>19308247
>>19308152
Read more.

>>19308290
>said that he just finished reading Dickens
>"Lol Dickens is the only thing you've ever read?"
Reddit tier reading comprehension.

Only Anglos can understand. Under The Greenwood Tree is one of his best imo