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Post by weirdmonger on Jun 2, 2021 16:04:50 GMT
Possible spoilers — AN IMAGINATIVE WOMAN by Thomas Hardy “Then she scanned again by the light of the candle the half-obliterated pencillings on the wallpaper beside her head. There they were — phrases, couplets, bouts-rimés, beginnings and middles of lines, ideas in the rough, like Shelley’s scraps, and the least of them so intense, so sweet, so palpitating, that it seemed as if his very breath, warm and loving, fanned her cheeks from those walls, walls that had surrounded his head times and times as they surrounded her own now.” A declining marriage, a busy gunsmith the husband and the eponymous woman his wife, an imaginative female force that later becomes explicitly an imaginary one in a poet’s head. This is Hardy at his most powerful, transcending some farcical turns of event. An imaginative woman, yes, but one who briefly dresses in man’s clothes to ape the poet she had fallen in love with UNSEEN and in whose rooms the married couple and their children stayed for a few weeks at the seaside. Amid the poet’s books and his poetic scraps or graffiti on the wall of beginning lines some of which we later learn are explicitly “erotic and passionate”. This turn of events lead by a circuitous audit trail to the poet’s suicide (using, ironically, a gun!) And her new born son — via whom she died during giving birth to him — the husband later deemed was a spitting image of the dead poet, although the wife (a budding writer of poetry herself) and the poet had never met in real life! The implications of erotic role-playing via methods of transference in the ether are manifold, as on one occasion she had kissed his photo and had at least briefly tantamount to become him, I wonder? A form of ‘trans’ behaviour still uncertain to exist, even today! My still ongoing review of Thomas Hardy Stories: dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/collected-short-stories-thomas-hardy/
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 10:45:25 GMT
Possible spoilers — AN IMAGINATIVE WOMAN by Thomas Hardy “Then she scanned again by the light of the candle the half-obliterated pencillings on the wallpaper beside her head. There they were — phrases, couplets, bouts-rimés, beginnings and middles of lines, ideas in the rough, like Shelley’s scraps, and the least of them so intense, so sweet, so palpitating, that it seemed as if his very breath, warm and loving, fanned her cheeks from those walls, walls that had surrounded his head times and times as they surrounded her own now.” A declining marriage, a busy gunsmith the husband and the eponymous woman his wife, an imaginative female force that later becomes explicitly an imaginary one in a poet’s head. This is Hardy at his most powerful, transcending some farcical turns of event. An imaginative woman, yes, but one who briefly dresses in man’s clothes to ape the poet she had fallen in love with UNSEEN and in whose rooms the married couple and their children stayed for a few weeks at the seaside. Amid the poet’s books and his poetic scraps or graffiti on the wall of beginning lines some of which we later learn are explicitly “erotic and passionate”. This turn of events lead by a circuitous audit trail to the poet’s suicide (using, ironically, a gun!) And her new born son — via whom she died during giving birth to him — the husband later deemed was a spitting image of the dead poet, although the wife (a budding writer of poetry herself) and the poet had never met in real life! The implications of erotic role-playing via methods of transference in the ether are manifold, as on one occasion she had kissed his photo and had at least briefly tantamount to become him, I wonder? A form of ‘trans’ behaviour still uncertain to exist, even today! My still ongoing review of Thomas Hardy Stories: dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/collected-short-stories-thomas-hardy/i do like Hardy, but he can be a very depressing author. The image of Diggory Venn, the dyed red reddleman in The Return of the Native, lingers in my memory, along with Egdon Heath.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 10:55:26 GMT
Do you think Diggory Venn is a personification of the heath?
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Post by weirdmonger on Jun 3, 2021 12:30:38 GMT
Not sure about Diggory Venn, but Hardy’s novels are famously very depressing, particularly JUDE THE OBSCURE! I have been finding his Collected stories much more variable. Some obscure gems revealing themselves….
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 13:20:05 GMT
Have you written about D. H. Lawrence?
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Post by weirdmonger on Jun 3, 2021 15:03:28 GMT
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 17:26:29 GMT
That's good. I do like him. "They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all..." Please list titles and authors of some obscure but classic Victorian or Edwardian ghost stories to try.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 3, 2021 17:49:43 GMT
Princess, have you read "Dionea" by Vernon Lee? It's worth taking time over. There are numerous electronic editions available (look for The Complete Hauntings)--I am pretty sure it's on the Gutenberg site.
And no doubt the High Priestess of the Vault Library can offer other helpful suggestions.
Amelia B. Edwards and E. Nesbit are worth reading, as well. So many have been rediscovered since the period of the 1970s.
H.
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Post by weirdmonger on Jun 3, 2021 17:58:05 GMT
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 17:58:46 GMT
Princess, have you read "Dionea" by Vernon Lee? It's worth taking time over. There are numerous electronic editions available (look for The Complete Hauntings)--I am pretty sure it's on the Gutenberg site. And no doubt the High Priestess of the Vault Library can offer other helpful suggestions. Amelia B. Edwards and E. Nesbit are worth reading, as well. So many have been rediscovered since the period of the 1970s. H. Thank you, I will read it in bed tonight.
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 3, 2021 18:08:53 GMT
Princess, have you read "Dionea" by Vernon Lee? It's worth taking time over. There are numerous electronic editions available (look for The Complete Hauntings)--I am pretty sure it's on the Gutenberg site. And no doubt the High Priestess of the Vault Library can offer other helpful suggestions. Amelia B. Edwards and E. Nesbit are worth reading, as well. So many have been rediscovered since the period of the 1970s. H. The Vernon Lee book is at Gutenberg, as is "The Phantom Coach" by Amelia B. Edwards. Well, the latter is on the Australian site & not in downloadable format. E. Nesbit's books are there too & at the Arch*ve; Gutenberg has her "Grim Tales" while Arch*ve has "The Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories" which includes at least one of her stories, no doubt there are other antholgies that also have something by her.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 18:09:52 GMT
Princess, have you read "Dionea" by Vernon Lee? It's worth taking time over. There are numerous electronic editions available (look for The Complete Hauntings)--I am pretty sure it's on the Gutenberg site. And no doubt the High Priestess of the Vault Library can offer other helpful suggestions. Amelia B. Edwards and E. Nesbit are worth reading, as well. So many have been rediscovered since the period of the 1970s. H. The Vernon Lee book is at Gutenberg, as is "The Phantom Coach" by Amelia B. Edwards. Well, the latter is on the Australian site & not in downloadable format. E. Nesbit's books are there too & at the Arch*ve; Gutenberg has her "Grim Tales" while Arch*ve has "The Young Oxford Book of Ghost Stories" which includes at least one of her stories, no doubt there are other antholgies that also have something by her. Thank you.
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 3, 2021 22:20:30 GMT
Princess, have you read "Dionea" by Vernon Lee? It's worth taking time over. There are numerous electronic editions available (look for The Complete Hauntings)--I am pretty sure it's on the Gutenberg site. And no doubt the High Priestess of the Vault Library can offer other helpful suggestions. Amelia B. Edwards and E. Nesbit are worth reading, as well. So many have been rediscovered since the period of the 1970s. H. Right, in bed now. Propped up on my swansdown pillows, with my Regency shift on and night cap. I found the Vernon Lee story, will it cause my heart to leap in my bosom? (mild titillation for my male readers here) We shall soon see! The mysterious Mr Helrunar recommended it to me. So odd that this gentleman only visits after sunset, what does he do in that old house up on the cliffs? With its solitary light glowing from the highest window? I hope I don't have to run away from it at some point in a long dress. Anyway, I shall now proceed to read the story, wish me luck! The candle flickers! My bosom heaves! (More titillation). Onward we go to adventure!
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jun 4, 2021 11:53:22 GMT
Didn't quite finish the story, as being tired I ended up settling down to sleep. I shall finish tonight, after which I shall present my findings. However I can see by the style of the prose why helrunar likes it so much. Next on my reading list will be E. Nesbit, please recommend a story to read.
Edited to say enjoying so far. I really should have finished it but I was very tired.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 4, 2021 12:05:36 GMT
Next on my reading list will be E. Nesbit, please recommend a story to read. Any of them really. Man-Size in Marble and John Charrington's Wedding are probably her best known short stories, but I'd start with From The Dead as a taster.
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