Impressions Les Silhouettes

The sea is flecked with bars of grey, The dull dead wind is out of tune, And like a withered leaf the moon Is blown across the stormy bay. Etched clear upon the pallid sand Lies the black boat: a sailor boy Clambers aboard in careless joy With laughing face and gleaming hand. And overhead the curlews cry, Where through the dusky upland grass The young brown-throated reapers pass, Like silhouettes against the sky. 162

The work brought him fame. In 1895 Oscar Wilde was brought to trial. He had to leave Britain for France, where he lived in poverty until his death in November 1900.

His masterpiece "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was written in 1891. In this work Oscar Wilde tries to prove his main principle: art doesn't reflect reality, but reality reflects art.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man, dreams of preserving his youth and beauty for ever. "He was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something on his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him". His portrait is painted by a talented artist, Basil by name. "When he (Dorian Gray) saw it (his portrait) he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recog­nized himself for the first time.... the sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before". "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this partic­ular day of June... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that — for that — I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!". Dorian's wish is fulfilled. The portrait possesses an

unusual quality: it reflects all the changes in the! appearance of Dorian Gray. But Dorian himself re-j mains untouched by the course of time. He is still as.1 young and beautiful as he was when the portrait was] painted. Basil Hallward likes Dorian immensely: "He| is all my art to me now... I can't exhibit it (thepicture),] I have put too much of myself into it...".

Besides Basil, Dorian is greatly influenced by Lord! Henry, who has found the way to Dorian's soul. He] said to Dorian: "You have the most marvellous youth, | and youth is the one thing worth having... You have] only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and] fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it... You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and I dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly... Live! Live the won- j derful life that it is in you. Be afraid of nothing... Dorian listened, open-eyed and wondering".

Lord Henry's influence is destructive. Basil loves Dorian dearly. These two men, representing Good i (Basil) and Evil (Lord Henry), struggle for Dorian Gray. Unfortunately, Lord Henry wins him over. Thus j Dorian lives a life according to the principles of] immoral aesthetics, he commits a number of crimes. I The picture, hidden away and kept locked, neverthe­less, reflects the degradation of a man who can't stop doing wrong things and can't do without pleasure. In ] the end Dorian realizes the horror of the situation and attacks his portrait with a knife... "Was he always to be burdened by his past?... There was only one bit of evidence left against him. The picture itself — that was evidence... He would destroy it.

He looked round, and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward.... As it had killed the painter,

so it would kill the painter's work... It would kill the past-He seized the thing, and stabbed the picture with it...".

When people enter the room they see the portrait of a beautiful young man on the wall and a dead body of an ugly, wrinkled old man on the floor: "When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

The author wants to show his attitude to life and art. He discloses the idea that Art is superior to Life, because a work of Art is always beautiful, and Life is ugly and wrinkled.

The story is full of paradoxes. Even the preface to "Dorian Gray" is written in a paradoxical style:

— The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

— To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim...

— They are the elect to whom beautiful things
mean only Beauty.

— There is no such thing as moral or immoral
book. Books are well written, or badly written.
That is all.

— All art is quite useless.

Wilde loves beauty whi-ch is against bourgeois soci­ety, and he goes away from reality.

"Beauty is the wonder of wonders" ("The Picture of Dorian Gray", Chapter II). The beauty of everyday life

attracts him greatly. His "Tales" are full of beau-t descriptions of the palaces, rooms, appearance a clothes of his characters. There are beautiful gardens I almost each of his tales: "It was a large lovely garde with soft green grass. Here and there over the grafl stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelvf peach-trees that in the springtime broke out into сЛ icate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang ■ sweetly that the children used to stop their games ■ order to listen to them" ("The Selfish Giant").

According to Oscar Wilde's theodB Nature must reflect Art, because Art is superior to Nature. Blood is like a red ruby, the sky is like a blue sapphire, grasl resembles emeralds.

The same thing happens with the per^ sonages of his fairy-tales. The Happy Prince "was gilded all over with thin leaves of gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt" ("The Happy Prince"). In "The Nightingale and the Rose" the student's "hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory..." The Prince in "The Remarkable Rocket" "had dreamy violet eyes, and his hair was like fine gold".

Thus everything must be beautiful. The language of his tales is rich, pure and exact. Bufl the contradiction between Life and Beauty disproves Wilde's aesthetic theory, thus adding another paradox to his life and work.

The plots of his tales are wise and profound from the philosophical point of view. The eternal misunderstand-166

g between the rich and the poor is reflected in many, his tales. The writer can brilliantly express his deep Iorrow that man is not appreciated for the feelings and beauty in the society. His personages want to be happy, though, as a rule, the end of his tale is pessimistic. When the statue of the Happy Prince in "The Happy I'iinee" is pulled down, the Art Professor at the Univer­sity says: "As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer [Useful". And the statue is melted down. The final scene in "The Selfish Giant" is also tragic: "When the children 1,111 in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms."

Oscar Wilde was a gifted and talented writer. He proved that life is full of paradoxes. It was his manner of protest against the flatness and narrowness of official ways of thinking.

The main paradox of his own life was in the contra­diction between theory and practice. Having pro­claimed that perfect art was associated with perfect immorality, he himself was a moralist.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Close to the name of Oscar Wilde stands the name of Lewis Carroll, whose book "Alice in Wonderland" became no less popular in England than Oscar Wilde's "Tales".

Like Wilde's "Tales", "Alice in Wonderland" is read mostly by grown-ups, though it was written for a young girl Alice.

Unlike Wilde's "Tales", the book about Alice an! her adventures in Wonderland is nonsense, but so Л lightful and strangely reasonable.

Lewis Carroll is a pen-name of Charles LutwidgJ Dodgson, who was born in 1832 in the family of a clergyman in Cheshire. "He was so good that his sister»' worshipped him; so pure that his nephew has nothing to say about him... He was prudish, pernickety, pioiM and jocose" (Virginia Woolf. "Essays").

Charles was well educated at Rugby School and theii at Oxford where he stayed to work, as a teacher Щ Mathematics. "He melted so passively into Oxford that he is invisible... If Oxford dons in the nineteenth eel tury had an essence he was that essence." It was then] that he wrote his first humorous poems for a popular magazine. He signed his poems as Lewis Carroll. In 1865 his "Alice in Wonderland" was published. The book brought him fame. The story was written for Alice,] the second daughter of the dean of the University.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

The plot centres round a pretty girl Alice who become the heroine of the adventures. Lewis Carroll] could bring the grown-up world to the world of childhood. "He could recreate it, so that we too be-] came children again" (Virginia Woolf. "Essays"). In order to make us children Lewis Carroll first makes I us fall asleep. He creates the world of sleep, the world] of dreams.

Alice falls down a rabbit hole and arrives in a Wonderland where she meets many unusual andj strange animals and people, "skipping and leaping¹ across the mind, and has many wonderful adventures

based on the mixture of reason and imagination. It's a combination of amusing plays, nursery-rhymes, alle­gory, colourful metaphors, parodies and play on words (pun).... it does not matter how old, how important, or how insignificant you are, you be­come a child again. To become a child is to be very literal; to find everything so strange that nothing is surprising; to be heartless, to be ruthless" (Virginia Woolf).

In the "Pig and Pepper" Lewis Carroll makes a parody on a well-known lullaby. The sentimental lullaby sounds like that:

Speak gently; it is better far

To rule by love than fear;

Speak gently, let no hard word mar

The good we may do here.

Speak gently to the little child. Its love be sure to gain; Teach it in accents soft and mild; It may not long remain.

Speak gently, kindly to the poor; Let no harsh tone be heard; They have enough they must endure Without an unkind word.

Speak gently; 'tis a little thing Dropped in the heart's deep well. The good, the joy, that it may bring, Eternity shall tell.

But Carroll's Duchess sings a severe lullaby:

Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes; He only does it to annoy, Because he knows it teases.

Wow! Wow! Wow!

I speak severely to my boy, I beat him when he sneezes; For he can thoroughly enjoy The pepper when he pleases!

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Duchess sings such a lullaby and gives the child j a violent shake at the end of every line. The poor little] thing howls so that Alice can't distinguish the words ("Pig and Pepper").

Lewis Carroll wants to amuse the reader; he copies the style of well-known songs and poems. In those time "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" (by Jane Taylor) was;] popular:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are Up above the world so high Like a diamond in the sky.

Carroll alters this verse into:

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at? Up above the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle —

("A Mad Tea-Party"^ Nonsense rules over the Wonderland. Nonsense has become a special literary device. It produces a comic effect. But it hides the serious things.

"The Mad Tea-Party" is called by Alice the stupi­dest tea-party she was ever at in all her life. The key­words describing the party are the following: fast asleep, asleep again, rubbing sleepy eyes, without opening eyes, closed eyes, doze, mournful tone, yawn­ing sleep...

Everyday routine is dull and boring!

The author reveals the spirit of his time. More than that, he depicts all aspects of life: fashion, thoughts, behaviour. Nonsense, stupidity form the basis of the comic effect, produced by many episodes. "The judge, by the way, was king, because of his great wig," the jurors "were putting down their names for fear they should forget them before the end of the trial." "Stu­pid things! Staff and nonsense!" ("Who Stole the Tarts?"). By the way, in this chapter Lewis Carroll gives a famous nursery rhyme "The Queen of Hearts" which is not altered. The first couplet of this song is given as an accusation against the knave:

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a summer day: The knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, And took them quite away!

A pack of cards resembles the Royal Court. The author uses topsy-turvy rhymes:

"Sentence first — verdict afterwards", "You should say what you mean...

• I mean what I say", "I see what I eat... I eat what I see", "I like what I get... I get what I like", "I breathe when I sleep... I sleep when I breathe"

("A Mad Tea-Party"). 171

The book is full of unexpected and silly remarlcj and questions: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"j ("A Mad Tea-Party"). The writer often makes puns,| using a word that has two meanings: "He was an old! crab," " We called him Tortoise because he taught us,% "they were in the well... of course, they were well in,% "you never had fits, then the words don't fit you." j Nevertheless, there are many clever sayings in the j book: "Birds of the feather flock together," "Take carel of the sense, and the sounds will take care of them-j selves."

All the personages have their prototypes; even j Dodo is Lewis Carroll himself. Some of them are ofj the mythological origin (Gryphon). Others are of a j great metaphorical value (Mock Turtle). But all of i them have become popular.

Everything in the story is strange and unusual. The j characters are often illogical. Only two of the person-1 ages, the Cheshire Cat and the Caterpillar, remain-j sensible and reasonable. The Cheshire Cat has the power to appear and disappear very quickly until its j big smile is left. "The Cheshire cat had... many teeth,,! so Alice felt it ought to be treated with respect." Thel Caterpillar takes "not the smallest notice of Alice or of anything else."

Nonsense and parody help Lewis Carrol to express j his own attitude to the moral standards and the methods of education in England in the second half] of the 19th century. That's why his "Alice in Wonder-1 land" is read mostly by grown-ups. His book makes 1 us children. "Only Lewis Carroll has shown us the, world upside down as a child sees it, and had made j us laugh as children laugh irresponsibly. Down thei groves of pure nonsense we whirl laughing... And] then we wake" (Virginia Woolf. "Essays").

Speaking about adventures either in Wonderland or fairyland, the name of Kenneth Grahame is worth nentioning. His name is not as popular as the names f Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll. But the readers who me interested in the genre of tale must get acquainted irith the book "The Wind in the Willows", written by Kenneth Grahame in Victorian Age.

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859. His mother died /hen he was little, and the boy was Bent to live in Berkshire. There were four children in the family, and their father couldn't cope with them. That's [why they were brought up by their grandmother, and although they were growing in love and kindness, the children depended on each other and supported each other. Grahame's mem­ories of his childhood are reflected in the book "The Wind in the Willows". The stories were originally told j to Grahame's only child, Alastair. That was a series of bedtime stories. They were published only in 1908.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

"The Wind in the Willows" attracts both children and adults. All the stories are connected with each other. There are the same characters taking part in the adventures: the Mole, the Toad, the Rat and the Badger. All of them possess human qualities. The first story where the author introduces his main person­ages to the reader is called "The River Bank". The

scenes of rural life have enchanted not only childr«B but also grown-ups. They enjoy the surprising advejB tures of the Water Rat and the Mole and their frielB Mr Toad. The action takes place on the River Bank,! the idyllic riverside settlement of the heroes. Thel river is colourfully described by the author: "thill sleek, sinuous, full bodied animal, chasing and chuckJ ling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving then! with a laugh... All was a-shake, and a-shiver-glintJ and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter an<l bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fasciru^| ed" ("The River Bank").

But the Mole, sitting on the grass and lookinB across the river, has little idea of the wonderful ad«| ventures ahead of him. Meanwhile, the Rat is sittine on the river bank, singing a little song:

Ducks Ditty

All along the backwater, Through the rushes tall, Ducks are a-dabbling, Up tails all!

In the second chapter, called "The Open Road", vfl come to know that the Mole wants to call on Mr ToaJ whom he has never seen beforehand he wants to make his acquaintance. Mr Toad lives in Toad Hall, the nicest house in those parts. Mr Toad is good-tempei* ed, good-natured, simple, affectionate, "always glad to] see you, always sorry when you go!" ("The OpeM Road"). Mr Toad is quite a personality. He is energetia and inventive. He gives up boating when he is inter-| ested in a canary-coloured cart promising travel, in| terest, change and excitement.

So the Toad, the Mole and the Rat start their trav­elling along the open road in the wonderful cart. They;ire happy, they enjoy everything: "...the dust they kicked up was rich and satisfying; out of thick orchards on either side the road birds called and whistled to them cheerily; good-natured wayfarers, passing them, gave them 'Good Day,' or stopped to say nice things about their beautiful cart..." (^'The Open Road").

But the Toad gives up the yellow cart as soon as he meets a magnificent motor-car, "immense and pas­sionate". "The poetry of motion" enchants him and he buys a large and very expensive motor-car. In the story, named "Mr Badger", the Rat, the Mole and the Badger are talking about the news and Mr Toad's passion for motor-cars. Mr Toad is going "from bad to worse", his house "is piled up to the roof with frag­ments of motor-cars", he has been in hospital three times. Later on, we come to know that Mr Toad is too proud of himself, too self-confident. His love for fast motor-cars brings him into prison: "He has been found guilty... first, of stealing a valuable motor-car, secondly, of driving to the public danger, and, thirdly, of gross impertinence to the rural police" ("Mr Toad"). But his friends love him. They are faithful and devoted to Mr Toad. It is a hard battle for them to teach him even a little sense. The Rat says reproachfully: "While you were riding about in expensive motor-car... those two poor devoted animals have been camping out in the open,.., watching over your house,... plan­ning... how to get your property back for you. You don't deserve to have such true and loyal friends..." ("Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears") Neverthe­less, the friends manage to alter Mr Toad. He has admitted his errors and "wrongheadedness". In the final story "The Return of Ulysses" the author says

that "the four animals continued to live their livqB and "sometimes,... the friends would take a stflfl together in the Wild Wood."

The book "The Wind in the Willows" by КеппеЯ Grahame has a great educational value, because it! an example of true friendship, and it proves a well* known proverb: "A friend in need is a friend indeed¹! It makes this book worth reading.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Robert Louis Stevenson wfl

born on November 13, 1850 in Edirwj burgh. The boy was christened Robeni Lewis Balfour Stevenson. But H adopted "Louis" as a neutral namd during his university days. He was the only child of Thomas Stevenson, a civB engineer, who designed lighthouse» Robert's childhood was a lonely one. In 1852 Alisoll Cunningham became his nurse. Her influence in his lfl was great. He wrote "Л Child's Garden of УекеШ which was published in March 1885 and dedicated to his old nurse, "Alison Cunningham, from her Ьоу".Я

For the long nights you lay awake And watched for my unworthy sake: For your most comfortable hand That led me through the uneven land: For all the story books you read: For all the pains you comforted: For all you pitied, all you bore, In sad and happy days of yore: —

My second Mother, my first Wife, The angel of my infant life — From the sick child, now well and old, Take, nurse, the little book you hold!

And grant it, Heaven, that all who read May find as dear a nurse at need, And every child who lists my rhyme, In the bright, fireside, nursery clime, May hear it in as kind a voice As made my childish days rejoice!

Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry for children is high­ly imaginative, he tries to identify himself with the children, with their vision.

Good Play

We built a ship upon the stairs All made of the back-bedroom chairs And filled it full of sofa pillows To go a-sailing on the billows.

We took a saw and several nails, And water in the nursery pails; And Tom said, "Let us also take An apple and a slice of cake;" — Which was enough for Tom and me To go a-sailing on, till tea.

We sailed along for days and days, And had the very best of plays; But Tom fell out and hurt his knee, So there was no one left but me.

The imaginative mind of a child draws Stevenson's attention. The naivety of childish perception is even comical in his poem describing the cow, who is asso­ciated with cream "to eat with apple-tart":

The friendly cow all red and white, I love with all my heart: She gives me cream with all her might, To eat with apple-tart...

(from "A Child's Garden of Verse', 1885):

In another poem Stevenson reveals the feelings of a] child's fear of the dark-ness and the mystery of night:

Whenever the moon and stars are set,

Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet,

A man goes riding by.

Late in the night when the fires are out,

Why does he gallop and gallop about?...

(from "Windy Nights")]

Stevenson was weak and his schooling was oftenl interrupted by illness. He studied at a preparatory school and later at Edinburgh Academy. The family travelled a lot. In 1862 they visited Italy, Germany,] France. The constant illness of their son made the family spend much time at health resorts.

In 1867 Robert Louis Stevenson entered the Faculty! of Engineering at Edinburgh University. He thought that having gained his degree, he would follow the family tradition and join the Stevenson engineering firm. Being a student Stevenson spent most of his holidays visiting the family firm's works and lighthous-es, which included trips to the islands, such as the Orkneys and the Hebrides.

But in 1870 Stevenson announced his decision to earn his living by writing. Soon he left Scotland for France, where he met Fanny Osbourne. She had a husband and

two children. In 1878 Stevenson published "An Inland Voyage", the account of a journey made in 1876 by canoe from Antwerp to the outskirts of Paris.

Meanwhile, Fanny returned to America, where Ste­venson came in August 1879. There he was reunited with Fanny and wrote several reviews. Afterwards the writer became seriously ill. Fanny who had divorced by that time took care of him. They got married on 19th of May, 1880. Firstly, they decided to return to Scot­land. Instead, the couple had to go to Switzerland to restore Robert's health.

In 1881 his first masterpiece, "Treasure Island" appeared in the "Young Folk" magazine. This story was composed by Stevenson to entertain his stepson Lloyd Osbourne.

The greatest fame came to the writer after the pub­lication of his thrilling story in book form in 1883.

In 1884 Stevenson and Fanny went to Bourne­mouth. "Treasure Island" was followed by the Scot­tish 18th century romance "Kidnapped" (1886).

"The Master of Ballantrae" (1889) and the historical 15th century tale of "The Black Ar­row" (1888) ap­peared in Ame­rica, where Ste­venson moved af­ter his father's death in 1887.

Bournemouth. The coast of the Atlantic Ocean. (The southern coast of Britain)

His novels are still popular to­day, they have be­come classic chil­dren's books.

THE BLACK ARROW

In "The Black Arrow" the action is revealed against the background of the medieval struggle between 1

those who remained loy- ] al to Henry VI, the "Lan-I castrians", and those j who supported the duke j of York, the "Yorkists".! The disagreement between the great j medieval royal families led to the civil wars, called the Wars of the Roses (1455-1 1485), because the emblem of the "Lancas-j trians" was the red rose and the symbol of the "York­ists" was the white rose. As a result, the harmony of, medieval England was destroyed, and feudalism came j to an end. Nevertheless, Henry Tudor combined red and white roses into one symbolic emblem of his j court after his marriage with Elizabeth York. Since then national unity was restored (1485). The main characters of the story are Dick, Joanna, Sir Daniel, John Matcham and some others. All of them are different, but they are shown vividly. Dick and Joanna! love each other, they get married at the end of the] story. Both are courageous, ready to help and honest Sir Daniel is, on the contrary, a coward who "had! changed sides many times, and every change made him richer... He goes to bed Lancaster and gets up' York." The Black Arrow is a symbol of revenge. People] hate Sir Daniel and his men who rob and kill them..| That's why the people become angry, and one day they send an arrow to oppressors with the following message:

I had four black arrows under my belt, Four for the griefs that I have felt, Four for the number of bad men That have oppressed me now and then.

One is gone; one is well sped;

Old Appleyard is dead,

One is for Master Bennet Hatch,

That burned Crimstone, walls and thatch.

One for Sir Oliver Pates, That cut Sir Harry Shelton's throat. Sir Daniel, you will have the fourth. We shall think it fair sport.

You will each have your own part, A black arrow in each black heart. John Amend-All of the Green Wood. And his merry men.

Stevenson's novel asserts the value of moral and physical courage, of truth and honour. The author's personality is fully reflected in his novels.

In 1890 Robert Louis Stevenson with his wife, step­son and mother settled on one of the Samoan Islands. There he lived, known as "Teller of Tales", for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, the publication of his books continued. His interests in London were looked after by his friends. He was working on the two novels, when on the 3rd of December, 1894, he died. He was buried on the top of Mount Vaea, overlooking his Samoan home, by the natives whose friend Stevenson was. On his tomb there was the epitaph he had written for himself:

Requiem

Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me: Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill.

Stevenson died when he was only 44 because of hiffl lung disease, but he managed to create the notabjB works based on his dislike of the narrow-mindedness Ш the Victorian middle-class way of living and thinking

His mother returned to Scotland. His wife went toj California. The Writers' Museum in Edinburgh house rare collections of manuscripts, first editions and por-jj traits relating to Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Stevenson collection is the most comprehensive| in the United Kingdom, and is of great significance Ж the world's literary heritage.

The beginning of the crisis of Victorianism is reflect ed in the pessimistic novels by Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Thomas Hardy was born and

brought up in Dorsetshire. At 15 hej was apprenticed to an architect wh<l rebuilt old churches. He was devoted] to architecture, and in 1863 he won!

Dorsetshire

the Prize of the Architectural As­sociation for de­sign. Meanwhile, he read a lot and was self-educat­ed. He decided to try his hand at writing, and in 1865 his first sto­ry was published.

But he won fame with the publication of the novel "Far from the Madding Crowd" only in 1874. It's a melodramatic love story of Gabriel Oak, a shepherd, and Bathsheba Everdence. They have to suffer a lot until they get married.

In "The Return of the Natives" (1878) Thomas Hardy depicts the narrow village world, its farms, fields and low hills. According to the author, nature plays an important part in revealing a severe struggle for exist­ence among the common villagers, poor wood-cutters and poor farmers. "The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darkest vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly marked. In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an installment of night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upward, a furze-cutter would have been inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his fagot and go home." {"The Return of the Natives")..

In 1886 Thomas Hardy wrote "The Mayor of Cas-terbridge". It's about Michael Henchard who sells his

wife and children. He does it while he is drunk, and! afterwards, having realized everything he has done Michael resolves never to drink again. He works hard, becomes rich, and in the end he is made the Mayor o! Casterbridge. His wife returns to him, but the hard­ships cut the ground from under his feet, and Michael is ruined and becomes a hard drinker again.

In 1891 Thomas Hardy produced a tale of a poor girl,! Tess Durbeyfield, whose misfortunes are so great that she commits a crime. Fate is against Tess, though she is descended from an ancient noble family, the j D'Urbervilles. She is at her wit's end and dies ("Tess\ of the D'Urbervilles").

Thomas Hardy's last novel, "Jude the Obscure" (1896), is about a poor stone-worker who wants to| educate himself. But again, fate has lost interest in him, his marriage is a failure, his children die. Jude drinks like a fish and dies.

Thomas Hardy writes all his novels about different] people, but in all his novels the idea of struggle for existence goes hand in hand with pessimism and hope­lessness.

Fate rules blindly the destiny of men and women/ and often takes the form of tragic irony. Fate and Chance are at odds with Destiny.

After Thomas Hardy had written all his novels, he! began to publish his poems, most of which had been already composed by that time. And again, the lyrics treat the problems of fate, death and sorrow. All of them are, penetrated with the spirit of extreme pessimism.] Nevertheless, Hardy's poetry varies much in form and nature, including songs, ballads and philosophical verses.

His famous collection of poems under the title "Time's\ Laughing-stocks and Other Verses" appeared in 1909.

The difference between his lyrical output and philo­sophical style is illustrated by his two famous poems: "The Division" and "At a Lunar Eclipse".

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