Desperate Remedies

1871 novel by Thomas Hardy

For the 1993 New Zealand film, see Desperate Remedies (film).

For the Andrew Scull book, see Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry's Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness.

Desperate Remedies

First edition title page

Author| Thomas Hardy
Language| English
Genre| Sensation novel
Publisher| Tinsley Brothers

Publication date

| 1871
Publication place| United Kingdom
Media type| Print (hardcover)

Desperate Remedies is the first published novel by English author Thomas Hardy. It is considered a sensation novel because it contains themes of bigamy, murder, illegitimacy, blackmail, and impersonation. It was released anonymously by Tinsley Brothers in 1871.

## Plot summary

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In Desperate Remedies a young woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by poverty to accept a post as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had been unable to marry.

Cytherea loves a young architect, Edward Springrove, but Miss Adclyffe's machinations, the discovery that Edward is already engaged to a woman whom he does not love, and the urgent need to support a sick brother drive Cytherea to accept the hand of Aeneas Manston, Miss Aldclyffe’s illegitimate son, whose first wife is believed to have perished in a fire; however, their marriage is almost immediately nullified when it emerges that his first wife had left the inn before it caught fire. Manston's wife, apparently, returns to live with him, but Cytherea, her brother, the local rector, and Edward come to suspect that the woman claiming to be Mrs. Manston is an impostor.

It emerges that Manston killed his wife in an argument after she left the inn, and had brought in the impostor to prevent his being prosecuted for murder, as the argument had been heard (but not seen) by a poacher, who suspected Manston of murder and had planned to go to the police if his wife did not turn up alive. In the novel's climax, Manston attempts to kidnap Cytherea and flee, but is stopped by Edward; he later commits suicide in his cell, and Cytherea and Edward marry.

## Publishing history

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After Hardy had trouble publishing his first novel, he was told to "attempt a novel with a purely artistic purpose, giving it a more "complicated" plot than was attempted with his first, unpublished novel." The publication of Desperate Remedies was Hardy's breakthrough, and the first of a long string of novels that propelled him to the forefront of Victorian letters.[1]

## Criticism

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Some critics cite "quasi-gothic" elements in Desperate Remedies. It was positively reviewed in the Athenaeum and Morning Post. However, the review in The Spectator excoriated Hardy and his work, calling the book "a desperate remedy for an emaciated purse" and that the unknown author had "prostituted his powers to the purposes of idle prying into the way of wickedness."[2] Hardy wrote of the review: "alas...The Spectator brought down its heaviest leaded pastoral staff on the prematurely happy volumes...the bitterness of that moment was never forgotten, at that moment I wished I was dead."[3]

## References

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1. ^ C.J.P. Beatty's introduction to the 1975 publication of Desperate Remedies
2. ^ Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007.
3. ^ F.E. Hardy, The Life of Thomas Hardy 1840–1928 (1962) pg.84

## External links

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English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Desperate Remedies (Hardy)

* Desperate Remedies Full text at Google Books

* Desperate Remedies at Project Gutenberg
* Desperate Remedies public domain audiobook at LibriVox

* v
* t
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Thomas Hardy

Novels|

* The Poor Man and the Lady (1867)
* Desperate Remedies (1871)
* Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)
* A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
* Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
* The Hand of Ethelberta (1876)
* The Return of the Native (1878)
* The Trumpet-Major (1880)
* A Laodicean (1881)
* Two on a Tower (1882)
* The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
* The Woodlanders (1887)
* Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891/92)
* Jude the Obscure (1895)
* The Well-Beloved (1897)

Short story collections|

* Wessex Tales (1888)
* A Group of Noble Dames (1891)
* Life's Little Ironies (1894)
* A Changed Man and Other Tales (1913)

Short stories|

* "The Three Strangers" (1883)
* "A Mere Interlude" (1885)
* "Alicia's Diary" (1887)
* "Barbara of the House of Grebe" (1891)
* "The Fiddler of the Reels" (1893)
* "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" (1894)

Poetry collections|

* Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)
* Poems of the Past and the Present (1901)
* Time's Laughingstocks (1909)
* Poems of 1912–13
* Satires of Circumstance (1914)
* Moments of Vision (1917)
* Late Lyrics (1922)
* Human Shows (1925)
* Winter Words (1928)

Poems|

* "Neutral Tones" (1898)
* "The Darkling Thrush" (1900)
* "The Ruined Maid" (1901)
* "The Respectable Burgher" (1901)
* "The Man He Killed" (1902)
* "A Trampwoman's Tragedy" (1903)
* "The Convergence of the Twain" (1915)
* "The Blinded Bird" (1916)

Plays|

* The Dynasts (1904–1908)
* The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall (1923)

Life|

* Thomas Hardy's Cottage
* Max Gate
* Emma Gifford (first wife)
* Florence Dugdale (second wife)

Related|

* Thomas Hardy's Wessex
* Egdon Heath
* Winter Words (song cycle)

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