The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament

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Thomas Hardy. The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament

The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament

Table of Contents

PREFACE

PART FIRST—A YOUNG MAN OF TWENTY

1. I. A SUPPOSITITIOUS PRESENTMENT OF HER

1. II. THE INCARNATION IS ASSUMED TO BE TRUE

1. III. THE APPOINTMENT

1. IV. A LONELY PEDESTRIAN

1. V. A CHARGE

1. VI. ON THE BRINK

1. VII. HER EARLIER INCARNATIONS

1. VIII. ‘TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING’

1. IX. FAMILIAR PHENOMENA IN THE DISTANCE

PART SECOND—A YOUNG MAN OF FORTY

2. I. THE OLD PHANTOM BECOMES DISTINCT

2. II. SHE DRAWS CLOSE AND SATISFIES

2. III. SHE BECOMES AN INACCESSIBLE GHOST

2. IV. SHE THREATENS TO RESUME CORPOREAL SUBSTANCE

2. V. THE RESUMPTION TAKES PLACE

2. VI. THE PAST SHINES IN THE PRESENT

2. VII. THE NEW BECOMES ESTABLISHED

2. VIII. HIS OWN SOUL CONFRONTS HIM

2. IX. JUXTAPOSITIONS

2. X. SHE FAILS TO VANISH STILL

2. XI. THE IMAGE PERSISTS

2. XII. A GRILLE DESCENDS BETWEEN

2. XIII. SHE IS ENSHROUDED FROM SIGHT

PART THIRD—A YOUNG MAN OF SIXTY

3. I. SHE RETURNS FOR THE NEW SEASON

3. II. MISGIVINGS ON THE RE-EMBODIMENT

3. III. THE RENEWED IMAGE BURNS ITSELF IN

3. IV. A DASH FOR THE LAST INCARNATION

3. V. ON THE VERGE OF POSSESSION

3. VI. THE WELL-BELOVED IS—WHERE?

3. VII. AN OLD TABERNACLE IN A NEW ASPECT

3. VIII. ‘ALAS FOR THIS GREY SHADOW, ONCE A MAN!’

Отрывок из книги

Thomas Hardy

Published by Good Press, 2019

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‘Oh, he is, though, every inch o’ en. He’s Mr. Jocelyn Pierston, the stwone-merchant’s only son up at East Quarriers. He’s to be married to a stylish young body; her mother, a widow woman, carries on the same business as well as she can; but their trade is not a twentieth part of Pierston’s. He’s worth thousands and thousands, they say, though ‘a do live on in the same wold way up in the same wold house. This son is doen great things in London as a’ image-carver; and I can mind when, as a boy, ‘a first took to carving soldiers out o’ bits o’ stwone from the soft-bed of his father’s quarries; and then ‘a made a set o’ stwonen chess-men, and so ‘a got on. He’s quite the gent in London, they tell me; and the wonder is that ‘a cared to come back here and pick up little Avice Caro—nice maid as she is notwithstanding. … Hullo! there’s to be a change in the weather soon.’

Meanwhile the subject of their remarks waited at the appointed place till seven o’clock, the hour named between himself and his affianced, had struck. Almost at the moment he saw a figure coming forward from the last lamp at the bottom of the hill. But the figure speedily resolved itself into that of a boy, who, advancing to Jocelyn, inquired if he were Mr. Pierston, and handed him a note.

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