Read as part of the Hardy group.

I'm going to have to call this book quits without finishing. Got most of the way through, got distracted by about 8 other books, and have had difficulty getting back into it. Another time, and I might complete it.

It was...ok. The first (and I think only) Hardy book to be set primarily "in town" (London) rather than in Wessex. Ethelbertha is the toast of the town, having produced a book of poems and then reciting her own stories in the fashionable salons around town. Most people dont realise she is the daughter of a butler, and the servants in her house are her mother and siblings.

She finds herself in the position of 3 men wanting to marry her - with her already having given up the apparent love of her life when she got married the first time.

"A comedy in chapters" is a little difficult to understand - perhaps from this distance it's not possible to see the humour. There is a little farce in having three men in Ethelbertha's house at the same time, all wanting her hand in marriage.

Unfortunately I got little further than this point. Whenever I attempt to read more, I find it difficult to get through a few pages at a time, so now to give up. ( )

Almost like Hardy writing a Dickens novel. Almost. ( )

This is not your usual Thomas Hardy because it is more lighthearted. The novel is considered a novel of comedy. Ethelberta is the main character with humble beginnings. A governess who marries well only to become a widow within weeks of marriage. Then she is pursued by four men seeking her hand in marriage. Lighthearted and happy endings are not what I've grown to expect from Hardy. Rating 3.2 Probably does not need to be on the 1001 list. ( )

This "comedy" started out so slow, that I was tempted to abandon it. It finally started picking up about Midway through. The comedy is the ridiculousness of the social classes in England, especially at the time of the setting (19th century). Deciding to marry for money to maintain the huge family that her mother and father have procreated, and are helpless to support, ethelberta pretends to be of the society class of London, and draws the intentions of an old nobleman. This guy is a ne'er-do-well, on his fifth wife, and keeps a mistress on his property, though ethelberta doesn't know it. The nobleman's brother and Ethelberta's brother Sol, upon finding out about the hushed, rushed marriage, try to stop it before the nuptials are declared, and the provoking scenes when they struggle through the countryside,nature throwing up roadblocks at every turn, is a gripping one.
For a "comedy, written between books," (Hardy's description), it's not bad. ( )

The Hand of Ethelberta is very different from other novels I have read by Thomas Hardy. It is quite long for a start, and it seems to me to resemble a Charles Dickens novel, much of it set in London. It concerns Ethelberta who is the dominant figure of the family, a very strong and determined woman who nevertheless gets tangled up in her love life and on one occasion says 'I wish I were a man'. Some of the book and the antics of the family, supporting or not supporting Ethelberta, reminded me of the Nickelbys. The extended family is removed from Wessex to London in order to keep them together and to be able to support Ethelberta as the breadwinner. She makes her living first by poetry and then recitations and public storytelling. There is a lot of banter among the family members and lots of humour associated with Ethelberta’s various suitors. Characters such as Neigh and Ladywell are wooden but the main suitor, Christopher Julian, is not. There are the usual unexpected meetings, misunderstandings and cases of mistaken identity. Messages are sent and intercepted and just as the end approaches there is a trick in the tail. However, the situation is retrieved and a sequel chapter at the end ensures that most characters are more or less happy. In many respects Ethelberta is like Bathsheba Everdene in Far from the madding crowd. Sometimes she acts on impulse only to regret the consequences. Hardy provides hundreds of wonderful turns of phrase, for instance, 'she'd rather hear thunder than her singing.' Picotee, one of Ethelberta's sisters, is endearing and would certainly win a supporting character award. ( )