![]() Granted it's hardly a fair comparison, but I recommend War and Peace. Well, to try out audiobooks I ended up with this one and Frederick Davidson's War and Peace. There's enough angst in the world and contemporary lit to suffice for me! The listen motivates me to download and reacquaint myself with other Hardy novels and perhaps download his bio. Well, admittedly the ending is "too happy " as someone pointed out -it wasn't Hardy's original ending I think he had to tone down his realism to get published, but as a teen and now as an old fart, I love the ending. In middle age, I felt the misogyny more deeply than back in the 70s, but I put up with it (and often much stronger) in Hardy's contemporaries and predecessors for the beauty if the prose and old fashioned romanticism and realism. ![]() As others have pointed out, the novel contains a somewhat misogynist portrait, but of a strong-ish heroine (for a Victorian character). She brought to life Hardy's poetic sections, especially those involving the English countryside and farming practices. I hesitated to download it, thinking such a beloved book would suffer in audio, but I really enjoyed the listen. I suppose the quick transmission to downloadable audio may keep the novel's price cheap? I fell in love with this novel (and Gabriel Oak) when I was 14 and have re-read the paper version several times over the last 35+ years. Though there are some audio quirks, they didn't significantly interfere with the listen (at least when formatted for ipod). ![]()
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