The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament

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

PREFACE

PART FIRST – A YOUNG MAN OF TWENTY

I. A SUPPOSITITIOUS PRESENTMENT OF HER

II. THE INCARNATION IS ASSUMED TO BE TRUE

III. THE APPOINTMENT

IV. A LONELY PEDESTRIAN

V. A CHARGE

VI. ON THE BRINK

VII. HER EARLIER INCARNATIONS

VIII. ‘TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING’

IX. FAMILIAR PHENOMENA IN THE DISTANCE

PART SECOND – A YOUNG MAN OF FORTY

I. THE OLD PHANTOM BECOMES DISTINCT

II. SHE DRAWS CLOSE AND SATISFIES

III. SHE BECOMES AN INACCESSIBLE GHOST

IV. SHE THREATENS TO RESUME CORPOREAL SUBSTANCE

V. THE RESUMPTION TAKES PLACE

VI. THE PAST SHINES IN THE PRESENT

VII. THE NEW BECOMES ESTABLISHED

VIII. HIS OWN SOUL CONFRONTS HIM

IX. JUXTAPOSITIONS

X. SHE FAILS TO VANISH STILL

XI. THE IMAGE PERSISTS

XII. A GRILLE DESCENDS BETWEEN

XIII. SHE IS ENSHROUDED FROM SIGHT

PART THIRD – A YOUNG MAN OF SIXTY

I. SHE RETURNS FOR THE NEW SEASON

II. MISGIVINGS ON THE RE-EMBODIMENT

III. THE RENEWED IMAGE BURNS ITSELF IN

IV. A DASH FOR THE LAST INCARNATION

V. ON THE VERGE OF POSSESSION

VI. THE WELL-BELOVED IS – WHERE?

VII. AN OLD TABERNACLE IN A NEW ASPECT

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

Отрывок из книги

A person who differed from the local wayfarers was climbing the steep road which leads through the sea-skirted townlet definable as the Street of Wells, and forms a pass into that Gibraltar of Wessex, the singular peninsula once an island, and still called such, that stretches out like the head of a bird into the English Channel. It is connected with the mainland by a long thin neck of pebbles ‘cast up by rages of the se,’ and unparalleled in its kind in Europe.

The pedestrian was what he looked like – a young man from London and the cities of the Continent. Nobody could see at present that his urbanism sat upon him only as a garment. He was just recollecting with something of self-reproach that a whole three years and eight months had flown since he paid his last visit to his father at this lonely rock of his birthplace, the intervening time having been spent amid many contrasting societies, peoples, manners, and scenes.

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The ‘night porter’ thanked him and left the room, and he soon heard her snoring from the adjoining apartment. Then Jocelyn opened proceedings, overhauling the robes and extending them one by one. As the steam went up he fell into a reverie. He again became conscious of the change which had been initiated during the walk. The Well-Beloved was moving house – had gone over to the wearer of this attire.

In the course of ten minutes he adored her.

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