Wessex Tales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wessex Tales is an 1888 collection of tales written by Thomas Hardy, many of which are set before Hardy's birth in 1840.

In the tales, Hardy writes using the pastoral voice. By separating the time period of his readers from his character's lives, Hardy creates a fictional world. The stories collected in Wessex Tales portray the hierarchy of shepherds and artisans, unlike the aristocratic literature of the Victorian era. To create these stories, Hardy studied Dorset's old newspapers, parish records, and spoke with older people of the town. Kristin Brady links Hardy's studying of people to the creation of his narrative voice: "The stories are all firmly grounded in Dorset life and folklore during the mid-nineteenth century and are drawn together by a unique narrative perspective, the pastoral voice". Revealing the humorous and affectionate observations of rustic life, the stories provide the foundation for Hardy's Wessex, which is further defined in his novels. The tales include The Three Strangers, A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four, The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion, The Withered Arm, Fellow Townsmen, Interlopers at the Knap and The Distracted Preacher.