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Start by marking “Desperate Remedies” as Want to Read: Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. "Desperate Remedies" is a novel that was written by Thomas Hardy and published in three volumes in
Table of contents

This is Hardy's first novel. For the first hundred pages or so it seems standard Hardy, but it quickly turns into a Wilkie Collinsesque potboiler the Victorian "sensation novel" of not astoundingly high quality it doesn't match The Woman in White , for instance. Unlike so much Hardy, there's a view spoiler [happy ending hide spoiler ].

I wouldn't recommend this edition Oxford World's Classics. Patricia Ingham's introduction, aside from not being particularly interesting, reveals not only every spoiler in the novel, but most spoilers from all of Hardy's other novels too.

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View 1 comment. This book was bonkers!

Thomas Hardy: Desperate Remedies | Books | The Guardian

Practically a Victorian soap opera. Every time the plot suggested something dramatic could happen, it happened not two pages later. The plot moves from sensational development to sensational development over and over. The characters were fun, but not nuanced. The ending was cute. Loved how a couple of characters talked about death toward the end of the book. Apr 23, Rose A rated it really liked it. I probably wouldn't even have heard of Desperate Remedies if I hadn't got it out of the library to listen to in the car.

I'm glad I found it, however, for this was a really interesting novel and an entertaining and surprising one. The blurb led me to expect something mediocre - Hardy's first novel, hints of greatness, ultimately flawed etc. I'm partial to these lesser known works and this did not disappoint. It's not so polished, true, and it was uneven in places in terms of pacing and structure I probably wouldn't even have heard of Desperate Remedies if I hadn't got it out of the library to listen to in the car. It's not so polished, true, and it was uneven in places in terms of pacing and structure listening in bursts in the car really helped with this; I might have had less patience if I had been reading it , but there was a lot to like.

In this novel, Hardy was trying to write a sensation novel in the style of Wilkie Collins with intrigue, murder, deception, power struggles and so on and it's a successful addition to the genre. To be fair, I worked out the big 'twist' from the very beginning but that didn't make the journey any less enjoyable. However, you can also find classic Hardy in the makings here - his sympathetic portrayals of women, his love of landscape, his Greek chorus of rustics, his major set-pieces and his interest in fate and coincidence.

This novel surely has a place for for lovers of Hardy and his craft as well as the Victorian novel.

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A few more intriguing elements - hints of a lesbian affair or at least lesbian feeling, far more graphically depicted than I would have expected makes me want to read more about representation of sensuality between women in mainstream Victorian literature. Hardy's understanding of feeling and emotion is top notch and he draws some memorable characters with an excellent portrait of a very understandable and therefore chilling villain. Very well worth picking up!

Sep 21, Margaret rated it liked it Shelves: victorian-fiction , authors-gh , read , british-literature , sensation-novels. Oh, this was quite strange, but worth reading. It was Hardy's first published novel, and it's most unlike his other books, an odd mishmash of romance and Gothic and sensation novel.


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When Cytherea Graye takes a position as lady's maid to eccentric, beautiful Miss Aldclyffe, she is drawn under the influence of the charismatic Manston, Miss Aldclyffe's steward, and entangled in a web of romantic and violent intrigue. It's overwritten never a two-syllable word where a four-syllable one can be used Oh, this was quite strange, but worth reading.

It's overwritten never a two-syllable word where a four-syllable one can be used instead , and the plot takes too long to get going, but it's oddly compelling and atmospheric anyway. It's full of quotations and allusions, which often weigh it down like the multisyllabic vocabulary , but they're often used in an interestingly subversive fashion. There's an ongoing allusion to The Aeneid , for instance, but the character whose first name is Aeneas is far from noble or pious, and a former prostitute is compared to the virginal Camilla for the courage they bear in common.


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  • By Thomas Hardy.

It was his first published novel. Hardy had completed his first novel "The Poor Man And The Lady" in but he was advised to either rewrite the novel, or " what would be much better I enjoyed the novel although I still haven't decided whether I am giving it 3 or 4 stars, "Desperate Remedies" is a novel that was written by Thomas Hardy and published in three volumes in I enjoyed the novel although I still haven't decided whether I am giving it 3 or 4 stars, maybe I'll know by the end of the review.

Hardy, when his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in ; there he enrolled as a student at King's College London. Perhaps Hardy's background as an architect is the reason there are so many architects running around in this book. The main character in the story is Cytherea Graye, her father, Ambrose Graye is an architect. In fact he dies when he falls from the scaffolding set against a church spire that he was supervising the completion of, being the architect of the structure.

Cytherea sees him fall to his death which was creepy. Her brother Owen is a young architect, or at least he is working his way to becoming one. The hero of our story is Edward Springrove. Owen meets Edward in the office where he works and it is through Owen that Edward and Cytherea meet. Why does Owen meet Edward in the office???

PREFATORY NOTE

Because Edward is an In the first chapter of the book we have a young Ambrose Graye just beginning his life as an architect when he meets Cytherea Bradleigh, the daughter of a retired Navy officer. This Cytherea was "the most beautiful and queenly being he had ever beheld" and he was in love with her by the second page of the book, which happens often in novels.

I am fairly certain that if I was in a novel it would take at least a few chapters of knowing a person before I was in love, but, then again, I'm not in a novel. She seems to enjoy being with him and her parents approve of him, so what could go wrong? After a few weeks he tells her how much he loves her and proposes at which time she answers "Ah-we must part now. Do we find out what divides them eternally? Yes, but not until page or so. Although if you read the book you'll probably figure it out before then.

Ambrose goes on to marry and have two children, the before mentioned Owen and Cytherea yes that's what he named her , his wife dies, we're not told why, and he is left with his two children. Now we jump ahead to where Ambrose goes up to check on the church spire and steps backward and now he's gone from the book too. Owen is a young man by now, and Cytherea is We find that through unwise loans and speculations Owen and Cytherea have been left penniless.

They leave their home and move to the town of Budmouth where Owen begins his work as an architect and Cytherea advertises in local papers for work as a governess, lady's maid or companion. While she waits for any replies to her advertisement she is introduced to Edward Springrove. Of course they fall in love probably within two pages of meeting but I can't quite remember. However, one day as they are out on a boat rowing around the bay Edward tells Cytherea he loves her, kisses her, everything seems fine; then he tells her that there is something she doesn't know, something he's kept from her, a great source of uneasiness.

Desperate Remedies (1871) by: Thomas Hardy: Novel

Cytherea begs him to explain but he won't and leaves the next day to advance his profession in London. And do we find out what his source of great uneasiness is? Yes, and rather soon. Cytherea receives a reply to her advertisement from a lady, Miss Aldclyffe of Knapwater House and takes a post as her lady's maid. She quickly becomes more than that though. Now there comes an extremely strange event on the very first night Cytherea is in the house that if it would have happened to me, there wouldn't be a second night in the house. A distinct woman's whisper came to her through the keyhole: 'Cytherea!

Cytherea stepped out of bed, went to the door, and whispered back, 'Yes? It was now mistress and maid no longer; woman and woman only. Yes; she must let her come in, poor thing. She got a light in an instant, opened the door, and raising her eyes and the candle, saw Miss Aldclyffe standing outside in her dressing-gown. I came to ask you to come down into my bed, but it is snugger here. But remember that you are mistress in this room, and that I have no business here, and that you may send me away if you choose.

Shall I go? The instant they were in bed Miss Aldclyffe freed herself from the last remnant of restraint. She flung her arms round the young girl, and pressed her gently to her heart. I don't understand this woman at all. She just met Cytherea that day, she comes to her room, she stays and insists on hearing her say her prayers, keeps her there with her for months after this and as a companion not as a lady's maid after this first day. The only explanation possible I came up with is that these two women had discovered a few hours before this that Miss Aldclyffe was Miss "Cytherea" Aldclyffe, she was the woman Cytherea's father had once loved.

So I think that perhaps realizing this young Cytherea is the daughter of her long ago lover she develops that fondness for her. I puzzle for awhile how this woman, who at the beginning of the novel is Cytherea Bradleigh is now Cytherea Aldclyffe without ever being married but there is this explanation: 'Has Miss Aldclyffe's family always been rich?

The property, with the name, came from her mother's uncle. Her family is a branch of the old Aldclyffe family on the maternal side. Her mother married a Bradleigh—a mere nobody at that time—and was on that account cut by her relations. But very singularly the other branch of the family died out one by one—three of them, and Miss Aldclyffe's great-uncle then left all his property, including this estate, to Captain Bradleigh and his wife—Miss Aldclyffe's father and mother—on condition that they took the old family name as well.

There's all about it in the "Landed Gentry. Cytherea realizes it was all Edward's doing. However, it is puzzling to me because that means everyone in the area knows Edward and everyone in the area knows what his secret is that he wouldn't tell Cytherea.

So why didn't he just tell her in the first place? Surely he had to know she would find out almost immediately which is exactly what happens and here is the big secret: 'Mean? Why that all the world knows him to be engaged to be married, and that the wedding is soon to take place. But even the frigidity of Miss Aldclyffe's morning mood was overcome by the look of sick and blank despair which the carelessly uttered words had produced upon Cytherea's face.