Life's Little Ironies (Wordsworth Classics)

Agree with all the other reviews - so worth getting. I've read all his novels and did wonder how effective his short stories would be? brilliant for killing an hour and so many different facets of life. A lot of the endings have a real kick and are also quite profound, even though it takes so little time to get there.

If you like Thomas Hardy you'll love this collection of short stories. If you haven't read any of his books this'll be a great way to start enjoying stories of a lost rural world in early 19th century England.

Enjoyable stories, although very sad. I expected tragedy, just not on this scale!

The Wordsworth Classic publication as illustrated has an introduction dated 2002, and presumably printed in 2003 and not as stated 1996. The book I received is brand new in pristine condition. That said, Thomas Hardy is one of our finest writers. The characters, the landscape, the then culture, the characters with universal timeless emotions are richly expressed, and leave a profound long lasting impression at the end of each story.

Arrived ahead of time and excellent condition so great service thank you.

Classic Thomas Hardy: great to get a copy of this book that is hard to come-by

Excellent little book of short stories.

Bought it for my husband so not for me to comment on the contents. The delivery was quick and the book in a very good condition.

I was blessed with two happy stays this summer in Touisset, an old-fashioned settlement on the Kickemuit River in Rhode island where my maternal grandparents built a summer house a hundred years ago. During our two Touisset stays this summer, I read four works by Thomas Hardy: two collections of short stories (Wessex Tales and Life's Little Ironies) and two novels (Under the Greenwood Tree and The Woodlanders). Initially, I assumed that I associate Touisset with Hardy because, during a Touisset stay sixty-one summers ago, I read Jude the Obscure. (I remember as if it were yesterday the July afternoon I read about young Jude Fawley gazing at the dim horizon and making out the distant domes and spires of Christminster. I was entranced, and I went on to read the other best-known Hardy novels: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Return of the Native, and Far from the Madding Crowd). Eventually, however, I came to realize that I associate Touisset with Hardy because Rhode Island is like Wessex: an obscure and eccentric corner of the world. Indeed, Touisset is like Mellstock and Longpuddle and Little Hinton: a small settlement surrounded by old farms, composed of old houses filled with old furnishings, and peopled by descendants of old families who talk with odd accents and tell and retell treasured stories about old times and old-timers. Indeed, "touisset" is a Wampanoag word that means "at the old field"! A common criticism of Hardy's works is that they're all about tragic miscalculations and doomed characters. It's true that Hardy views human beings as "specks" ("speck" is one of his favorite words) in the vastness of Nature and the vastness of Time. It's also true that he views life as "a riband of light [that falls] through the opening [of a door ajar] into the dark atmosphere without," and views human beings as "moths[s], decrepit from the late season, [that] flit for a moment across the outcoming rays and disappear again into the night." Nevertheless, he tells us that, as we flit briefly across the riband of light, we can notice the details of the natural world, write majestically, speak idiosyncratically, cherish old and twice-told tales, chuckle at each other and ourselves, and act with curiosity and compassion toward each other and all creatures.

I like it.

Even though some of these stories don't rise to the stature of Hardy's great novels, each is a small gem that can be treasured on its own terms. Hardy was a master of the English language, and his artistry is on full display in these stories, which range from the tragic to the humorous. (What? Thomas Hardy humorous? Surprise, surprise!) I would highly recommend this book to those who love Hardy but know his prose only through his novels, as well as to those who have felt too daunted to read them.