Two on a Tower: A Romance (Penguin Classics)

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But his neighbour Tabitha Lark has meanwhile conveniently matured into ‘blushing womanhood’ and is not only a trained musician but someone ready to help him transpose his astronomical notes. In other words, she is a younger wife ready and in waiting. She smiled through her perplexity as she took his hand.‘The oddest things happen to me, dear Swithin,’ she

Thomas Hardy is not normally regarded as a novelist of the ‘sensationalist’ school, but there are certainly many elements of its literary devices in his work. Two on a Tower features several plot devices that span the melodrama and the sensation novel. Thomas Hardy es un autor que me decidí a leer este año una tarde en la que, haciendo un repaso lector de los libros leídos y autores descubriertos, decidí que mi última lectura sería con otro autor nuevo. XXXVII. Swithin sets off for the southern hemisphere, and his lodgings at the Tower are dismantled. Viviette has a vision of a golden-haired child, and decides she must follow Swithin. complex and remarkable, involves adultery and accidental polygamy. On publication some reviewers considered the novel to be immoral, and one suggested that the treatment of the Bishop of Melchester might be regarded as a `studied and gratuitous insult aimed at the Church'. This sensational tale is informed throughout by the astronomical images and reflections which were preoccupying Hardy at the time of the book's composition. This is the first critical edition of Two on a Tower. Based on a study of the manuscript and Hardy's revised printed versions, it presents a text in which many variants make their appearance in print for the first time. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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XIV. The new knowledge inflames his passion, but when they meet she feels guilty at distracting him from his astronomy They think their relationship cannot succeed, and must be concealed from the general public. Swithin St Cleve is devastated to find that someone has made the same astronomical discovery as himself and published a scholarly paper on the matter. He collapses during a rainstorm, catches a chill, and is thought to be near the point of death. However, his spirits rise and he recovers on hearing news of the arrival of a comet – which he observes through his new ‘equatorial’ telescope.

VIII . She pays over the money for the instrument in secret then visits the new telescope at night with Swithin. She feels he is losing himself in the stars. XXXI. Viviette receives a proposal of marriage from the Bishop. Louis urges her to accept it, but she refuses. He leaves the house in a rage. Published in 1882, his ninth novel, Two on a Tower is Hardy's most complete and daring treatment of the theme of love between characters of different classes and ages. Viviette, the married lady of the manor, is nine years older than Swithin St Cleve, the 20-year old `Adonis-astronomer', a `lad of striking beauty, scientific attainments, and cultivated bearing', the orphaned son of a curate who married the daughter of a family of farmers. The story of their love, both XXXII. Viviette and Swithin decide to reveal their marriage to the Bishop and to Louis. Viviette’s solicitor sends word that Sir Blount died much later than was previously thought. Viviette realises that her current marriage to Swithin is therefore invalid.Age aside, I wonder how many Victorian women read this book and then afterwards went out to try to find themselves a young astronomer (or other scientist) to enlighten them. Through this novel, Hardy makes astronomers seem extraordinarily sexy in their singular and focused scientific endeavors: “Within his temples dwelt thoughts, not of woman’s looks, but of stellar aspects and the configuration of constellations. Thus, to his physical attractiveness was added the attractiveness of mental inaccessibility.” And this is the crowning line to make all the Victorian literary fan girls truly swoon: “There was a certain scientific practicability even in his love-making, and it here came out excellently.” There probably weren’t enough scientists to go around after the Victorian fan girls read that line.