Desperate Remedies in Works of Thomas Hardy

Feb 12, 2021 Sara rated it liked it

Shelves: gutenberg-download, classics, romance, mystery, 19th-century-literature

3.5 stars, rounded down. Still a very well written novel.

Desperate Remedies was Thomas Hardy鈥檚 first published novel, and while failing to live up to his later works, it foreshadows the brilliant author he would come to be. In a Thomas Hardy channels Wilkie Collins fashion, this novel is a bit of a mystery novel, and lacks the depth of idea development that makes Hardy one of my favorite authors. By three-quarters of the way through, I had guessed at most of the riddles that had been set for us 3.5 stars, rounded down. Still a very well written novel.

Desperate Remedies was Thomas Hardy鈥檚 first published novel, and while failing to live up to his later works, it foreshadows the brilliant author he would come to be. In a Thomas Hardy channels Wilkie Collins fashion, this novel is a bit of a mystery novel, and lacks the depth of idea development that makes Hardy one of my favorite authors. By three-quarters of the way through, I had guessed at most of the riddles that had been set for us and had a clear idea of exactly where the plot was going.

You might think this would have made the reading less enjoyable, but I find Hardy鈥檚 remarkable character development and descriptions are fascinating, even in a lesser work. He can describe an activity, in this novel it was cider pressing, with such amazing detail, that you can picture vividly the men at work and thrill with understanding the mechanics of a skill that is literally now lost in time.

Thrust into poverty at the death of her father, a young girl, Cytherea, is forced to seek employment as a lady鈥檚 maid, and takes up that station with a woman who turns out to be the love of her father鈥檚 life who slipped through his fingers under strange circumstances. Cytherea is an exceptionally lovely girl, and she becomes the object of desire for two men; but her love-life proves to be anything but a simple and straight-forward affair.

There is a great deal of backroom plotting and inexplicable interference in Cytherea鈥檚 life by her lady employer, Mrs. Aldclyffe, some false information to overcome and some errors in judgment that make one cringe. The story is neatly tied at the end, no pesky strands left unresolved. From another author, this book might have garnered an extra star. In this case, the author is Thomas Hardy, and the comparison cannot help but be made with his masterpieces, in which case this book falls a tad short.

I am on a quest to read all of Hardy鈥檚 works, and I am pleased to have read this one. It was a pleasant way to ease myself back into a reading mode, something I had left behind me, out of necessity, for the last few months.
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Nov 25, 2012 Lobstergirl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

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).

I wouldn't recommend this edition (Oxford World's Classics). The footnotes/endnotes will seem overly obtrusive to most readers (who doesn't know that a "palle ...more

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Apr 04, 2014 Brian E Reynolds rated it really liked it

This is Hardy鈥檚 first novel and is written as more of a sensation novel than his more literary later works. Hardy felt he needed to write in this style in order to get published and to attract enough readers to continue getting published. The difference in style is reflected in the plotting and characterization. In both of these aspects, Hardy wants to keep the reader wondering, guessing and in a state of mystery. To accomplish this in his plotting, Hardy withholds some information and presents This is Hardy鈥檚 first novel and is written as more of a sensation novel than his more literary later works. Hardy felt he needed to write in this style in order to get published and to attract enough readers to continue getting published. The difference in style is reflected in the plotting and characterization. In both of these aspects, Hardy wants to keep the reader wondering, guessing and in a state of mystery. To accomplish this in his plotting, Hardy withholds some information and presents others in a manner that tends to lead the reader into mistaken assumptions and add to the element of surprise. Hardy also presents more twists and turns and sinister elements. For instance, there is a tragic death that is a key plot element. While tragic deaths and even murders are fairly typical of Hardy even in his more literary works, in this case the death is shrouded in atypical mysterious elements.

Hardy also strives to create this sense of mystery through his characterization. The protagonist is a young orphan 18-year-old Cytherea Graye who, to make a living, goes to work as a maid/companion to the wealthy landed Miss Aldclyffe, the woman her father loved but was unable to marry. As a result of this connection, Miss Aldclyffe looks on Cytheria like a daughter she can both dote on and control. For example, Cytheria is attracted to a neighboring young architect Edward Springlove who she had previously met through her architect brother Owen. However, Miss Aldclyffe actively plots to steer Cyntheria away from Edward and into the arms of her own choice for Cytheria鈥檚 mate, her newly hired estate manager, the good-looking Aeneas Manston. This love triangle is at the heart of the story and serves as the impetus for the sensation events and mystery elements that develop.

While Cytheria is a straightforward damsel in distress, the reader鈥檚 opinion is unsure as to Miss Aldclyffe and Cytheria鈥檚 two suitors. As he does with plot elements, Hardy hides and reveals information on the backgrounds and motivations of these characters in order to create a mystery as to their motivations and their relative degrees of good or evil.

In order to achieve the suspense and mystery he deemed necessary for this sensation novel, Hardy creates characters less real and with less depth and situations more contrived than those in his more literary dramatic novels. As a consequence, my empathy for any character, even the heroine Cytheria, was limited.

However, Hardy鈥檚 descriptive and poetic writing is still evident here just with more of a flourish as he adapts to the goals of a sensation novel. As a result of the usual Hardy stylistic presence, the book鈥檚 sensational plotting and characterization, even with the above-cited defects, turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. The sensation aspects actually made this novel a bit different from and a more entertaining reading experience than several of Hardy鈥檚 lesser quality non-sensation novels, such as The Laodicean and The Well-Beloved.

I鈥檓 only a moderate fan of sensation novels, even those of the leading masters of the form. I鈥檝e read four Wilkie Collins and two Elizabeth Braddon sensation novels and, while I enjoyed most of them, I have yet to give one a 4 or 5-star rating. In contrast, I鈥檓 a major fan of Hardy鈥檚 work and have read all 14 of his novels and 7 of them twice. I adore Hardy鈥檚 writing style. Based on this predilection, I ended up preferring Hardy鈥檚 perhaps more amateurish attempt at a sensation novel to any of the six that I鈥檝e read from the masters of the form. I rate this as 4 stars. ...more

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Aug 18, 2008 Robert rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

This is Hardy's first published novel and it displays a number of themes that became staples of his prose works: an affair of the heart thwarted by circumstance, the effects of low social mobility, coincidence influencing the course of protagonists' lives. It does not bring social commentary to the fore-front, however. Instead the reader is propelled through the story by an urge to solve mysteries, one of which is not entirely cleared up until the final pages.

It is interesting to contrast the he ...more

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May 05, 2014 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-books-read, favorite-author

Thomas Hardy鈥檚 first book was rejected by publishers because the plot went nowhere. The plot certainly went somewhere with his second book and first published novel, Desperate Remedies. Considering how many of Thomas Hardy鈥檚 novels were made into movies, I鈥檓 surprised that this one wasn鈥檛. He鈥檚 built a very strong cast of characters. The heroine is strong and rational while the villain is dastardly indeed. The tale is one part mystery and one part love triangle. I鈥檇 even go as far as to call it Thomas Hardy鈥檚 first book was rejected by publishers because the plot went nowhere. The plot certainly went somewhere with his second book and first published novel, Desperate Remedies. Considering how many of Thomas Hardy鈥檚 novels were made into movies, I鈥檓 surprised that this one wasn鈥檛. He鈥檚 built a very strong cast of characters. The heroine is strong and rational while the villain is dastardly indeed. The tale is one part mystery and one part love triangle. I鈥檇 even go as far as to call it gothic. This is the first time I鈥檝e read anything by Hardy remotely approaching gothic, and I quite enjoyed it.

After the untimely deaths of their parents, two young adults go out into the world together to try to fend for themselves. The brother tries to find a job related to his architectural studies while the sister, Cytherea, looks for a position as a lady鈥檚 maid. As fate would have it, Cytherea accepts a position in the home of a lady whose past is closely connected to that of Cytherea鈥檚 family.

Two men vie for Cytherea鈥檚 attention, but she finds herself not trusting either of them. The first tries to kiss her in a row boat and the second creeps her out by drawing her into his house during a thunderstorm and playing his organ for her. No, this is not a euphemism. And, no, he doesn鈥檛 actually know how to play an organ (this sounds strangely like a bad date I once had). She eventually finds out both of these overly-forward guys have dirty secrets and feels justified in her contentment to stay single. I was quite happy to find that Cytherea has her head on straight enough to initially steer clear of these guys. She wisely heeds the advice that her father gives at the beginning of the book: 鈥渄on't love too blindly: blindly you will love if you love at all, but a little care is still possible to a well-disciplined heart.鈥� It鈥檚 too bad we can鈥檛 all learn from the mistakes of others as well as Cytherea has. 鈥淪cheme to marry? I'd rather scheme to die!鈥� she says. Yet, she has her own lessons to learn.

Unfortunately, because of her brother鈥檚 failing health, she eventually finds herself pressured to marry to avoid sending her brother to a county hospital. Oh the horror. I found it very infuriating that the brother insisted that his sister marry for money when he knew it would cause her a life of sadness simply because he didn鈥檛 want to take the chance he might lose a limb at the county hospital. I can鈥檛 imagine asking someone to sacrifice the happiness of their entire life for the sake of my limb. But that鈥檚 what brothers are for, right?

The last part of the book is fast-paced as you try to determine if your suspicions are correct about the dark secrets various characters may be harboring. There are a few clues along the way. Unfortunately, I read one of the biggest secrets -- one that鈥檚 only revealed in the last few pages -- in a synopsis for this book somewhere online. In a way, it was interesting to read the book through that lens, but I would have rather not have had it spoiled for me. Still, that was not the most surprising of gothically delectable revelations.

I think that my favorite quote in the book is from a man who is doomed to imminent death. He says, 鈥淚 am now about to enter on my normal condition. For people are almost always in their graves. When we survey the long race of men, it is strange and still more strange to find that they are mainly dead men, who have scarcely ever been otherwise.鈥� I can鈥檛 seem to forget this statement in the few days since I read it. It鈥檚 caused myself to marvel daily that I鈥檓 alive now in the whole history of the universe. That statement, like Carl Sagan鈥檚鈥淐osmic Calendar鈥�, reveals so much of how infinitesimal man鈥檚 existence is in the universe.

Hardy has a way of taking situations and twisting them to the breaking point in his plots. His characters are interconnected in such deliciously complicated ways. But so much of it is bound up in the laws or in the societal expectations of the time. It鈥檚 like how we read a book from a couple of decades ago and think how everything would be far less complicated with a cell phone. With Hardy, everything would be far less complicated if the characters weren鈥檛 worried about what the Joneses thought or if they could easily get a divorce without social ostracism.

One curious scene in the book appears to be homoerotic in nature. In general, Hardy鈥檚 later books expose the failings of Victorian cultural norms and the complications that they create for people. But this seems to be a different beast altogether. Either the scene is written innocently or its written as a bit of Victorian spite. I can鈥檛 seem to find anything on the subject other than that, when Queen Victoria was asked why there weren鈥檛 any laws against female homosexuality, she replied that women don鈥檛 do that sort of thing. So, was Hardy trying to say that they indeed did or was he really just writing an innocent scene? I would posit that it鈥檚 the former since he was made to change the scene in later editions to call the affections something akin to 鈥渕otherly love鈥�. I don鈥檛 buy it. If the Queen thinks that lesbianism doesn鈥檛 exist, you can write about it to your heart鈥檚 content with impunity.

I can very well see how this book helped to launch Hardy鈥檚 future success. It鈥檚 a close second so far among the books of his I鈥檝e read (my favorite so far being Two on a Tower). I highly suggest it for anyone interested in reading something by Hardy, especially if they like a book that鈥檚 more on the dark side. ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 John Frankham rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction-pre-1900

Having read most of Hardy's novels, and re-read them, this was my first reading of Desperate Remedies. A real surprise, and a real pleasure. A cross between later Hardy and Wilkie Collins. And some of the beautifully rhythmic prose reminded me of Jane Austen, oddly enough.So adventurous for its time.

From a good Hardy web-site:

'Desperate Remedies (1871) was Thomas Hardy鈥檚 first published novel. He wrote it following the disappointment of having his first work The Poor Man and the Lady rejected fo ...more

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Sep 24, 2013 Diane rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Hardy had entrusted Chapman and Co., with his first book, "The
Poor Man and the Lady" and they promised to take it in hand but
George Meredith, one of their readers, felt the book showed
enormous promise and advised Hardy to rewrite it to give it a
more complicated plot and it certainly had that. The finished
book he called "Desperate Remedies" and it took the original
novel in a completely different direction becoming a mystery
novel in the then popular Wilkie Collins fashion and set in the
profession ...more

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Aug 02, 2016 Kev Ruiz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Having read a number of Hardy's to date, the reading of Desperate Remedies has been very interesting. With this being his first published Hardy novel, it has been interesting to identify the many elements which later on became staple ingredients in Hardy's subsequent works.

Interestingly too, Desperate Remedies also differs greatly from his other works in that it is a bit of a "sensation novel". With a number of secrets lurking in the background, and a few twists and turns every so often in the ...more

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