Just started reading 'The Well-Beloved' by Thomas Hardy, and I'm about 30 pages in and really enjoying it.
Hardy's opening description of the 'Isle of Slingers' may not reach the incredible heights of his opening description of Egdon Heath in 'The Return of the Native', but it has definitely aroused my curiosity about the Isle of Portland peninsula near Weymouth in old county Dorset (Wessex). Really feel that I must visit this place when I finally get round to going down to Dorset to visit all the Hardy places (Dorchester; Higher Bockhampton; Stinsford; Sherborne; Shaftesbury/Shaston; Marnhull; Melbury Bubb etc.).
Of course, through Hardy's focus on the main male character, Jocelyn Pierston, I'm picking up on the author's central themes of men often idealising women, not sensing what they really are; and, correspondingly, the distinction between art (creating immortalised/idealised abstract forms) and reality (the particular real form, the ageing process that every human is sadly subject to). Will be interesting to see how these themes are borne out throughout the rest of 'The Well-Beloved'.
Glad that 'The Well-Beloved' is a short novel, as I have next to no time to do such reading these days.
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