Description
Wessex Tales is an 1888 collection of tales written by English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.In the various short stories, Hardy writes of the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions, the use grammar as a diluted form of thought, the disparities created by the role of class status in determining societal rank, the stance of women in society and the severity of even minor diseases causing the rapid onset of fatal symptoms prior to the introduction of sufficient medicinal practices.
A focal point of all the short stories is that of social constraints acting to diminish one’s contentment in life, necessitating unwanted marriages, repression of true emotion and succumbing to melancholia due to constriction within the confines of 19th century perceived normalcy.
Published in 1888, Wessex Tales contained five stories (“The Three Strangers”, “The Withered Arm”, “Fellow-Townsmen”, “Interlopers at the Knap”, and “The Distracted Preacher”) all published first in periodicals. Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet.
295 pages
