Quote:
Originally Posted by astrangerhere
The first sentence is one of my favorite of the book. The second is textbook Greek tragedy, which has been discussed by those more learned than me above. But, again, I see the the fact that Thomas Hardy was the focus of Malamud's study.
A quick JSTOR search on Hardy turns up hundreds of articles on suffering in his work, and if Malamud was mired in that for at least two years to do the thesis it had to work its way into his writing DNA. I guess combining that with the news of the time of baseball players being shot by dames made for one hell of an alchemy.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Never turn to Hardy if you need something cheerful!
I think you have a very good point astrangerhere - there is a certain Hardyesque feeling of doom driving Roy from one disaster to the next (emphasis mine). Though it's more his own fault, at least partly, than his simply being a pawn of the malicious fates.
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That's probably why I abandoned Hardy in my teens and never wanted to go back! Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of tragedy, except the Shakespearean versions. And Roy is definitely the victim of his own faults, predominately.