Which novel ?

[ted]

For June's contribution I shall try something different. In these days of Kindle we can download masses of literature at very modest cost and I have been doing so in order to fill embarrassing gaps in my reading. It wasn't until I listened to the recording that it seemed to me the hour long improvisation last Sunday, concluded here, really did reflect the spirit, and even plot, of the very famous English novel I had been reading for the first time.

Let's see if anybody can guess it from the music. 

[ted]

"Tess of the D'Urbervilles". I am working my way through all of Thomas Hardy.

[dogperson]

"Tess of the D'Urbervilles". I am working my way through all of Thomas Hardy.

I even read this but so many decades ago that it is a faint memory.
Thanks for providing the puzzle answer—- I even pulled up a list of great British novels but without success

And BTW: I really enjoyed the improv!

[ted]

I even read this but so many decades ago that it is a faint memory.
Thanks for providing the puzzle answer—- I even pulled up a list of great British novels but without success

And BTW: I really enjoyed the improv!

Thanks for listening, glad you like it. The novel was branded as “vile” by a few of Hardy’s prominent contemporaries. That it is not. Its deeply disturbing character arises, it seems to me, from the ineluctable nature of the unfolding tragedy. As with Shakespeare the mess is intrinsic and convoluted, denying the reader the analytical panacea of mere plot contrivance.

I did not start playing with Tess in mind, I am not particularly good at conscious impressionism, but on listening to the recording the next day the influence stood out.

[goldentone]

Great ending and chord, something bitter and Mephistopholean, that would capture Hardy's universe.  That would have been a difficult assignment to guess.

You've got some fine creative passages in this.  Really nice runs too. 

The first work of Hardy I read was "The Withered Arm" for a high school English paper.
It is quite a tale.  Of his novels, I have read Mayor of Casterbridge, Jude, Tess, and several of his short stories.  Jude got closest to me.  One of the last stories I read pretty much cured me of Hardy, for although true to his worldview, the bitterest tragedy was all he knew.  "The Heart of Thomas Hardy" documentary (include "doc" in the search), an engaging documentary, is on YT if you're interested.

Good luck on the rest of your Hardy journey!

[ted]

Thanks for listening, pleased you like it, goldentone. Yes, from what I have read so far his male characters do seem to resemble what Joyce might have termed “lovelorn, longlost, lugubru booloohooms”, perhaps mirroring the author himself. I have not yet read enough to see the whole picture or comment further but other aspects of his writing are sufficiently attractive to keep me going for the present. I shall certainly watch that documentary.