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Two on a Tower
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Two on a Tower Paperback - 2000

by Thomas Hardy; Introduction by Sally Shuttleworth; Notes by Sally Shuttleworth


Summary

Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with the beautiful youth Swithin St Cleeve, her social inferior and ten years her junior. The tower in question is a monument converted into an astronomical observatory where together the lovers 'sweep the heavens'.

Science and romance are destined to collide, however, as work, ambition and the pressures of the outside world intrude upon the pair. In what Sally Shuttleworth calls 'a drama of oppositions and conflicts', Hardy's story sets male desire against female constancy, and 'describes an arc across the horizon of late nineteenth-century social and cultural concerns: sexuality, class, history, science and religion'.

From the publisher

Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He died on January 11, 1928, and was buried in Poet’s Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.

Details

  • Title Two on a Tower
  • Author Thomas Hardy; Introduction by Sally Shuttleworth; Notes by Sally Shuttleworth
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Revised
  • Pages 336
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Group, London
  • Date 2000-07-01
  • Features Maps
  • ISBN 9780140435368 / 0140435360
  • Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.68 x 5.44 x 0.82 in (19.51 x 13.82 x 2.08 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Reading level 1140
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Library of Congress subjects Love stories, Adultery
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 00269835
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) immortalized the site of his birth--Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester--in his writing. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels--Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure--he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He was buried in Poet's Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.

Patricia Ingham is a Senior Research Fellow and Reader at St Anne's College, Oxford. She has written on the Victorian novel and on Hardy in particular. she is the General Editor of all of Hardy's fiction in the Penguin Classics and has edited Gaskell's North and South for the series.

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Paperback / softback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St Cleeve, an astronomer who is ten years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discove
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Two on a Tower (Penguin Classics)
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Two on a Tower (Penguin Classics)

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Two on a Tower (Penguin Classics)
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Two on a Tower (Penguin Classics)

by Hardy, Thomas; Shuttleworth, Sally [Editor]; Shuttleworth, Sally [Introduction];

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