Book description
Adventuress and opportunist, Ethelberta reinvents herself to disguise
her humble origins, launching a brilliant career as a society poet in
London with her family acting incognito as her servants. Turning the
male-dominated literary world to her advantage, she happily exploits the
attentions of four very different suitors. Will she bestow her hand upon
the richest of them, or on the man she loves? Ethelberta Petherwin,
alias Berta Chickerel, moves with easy grace between her multiple
identities, cleverly managing a tissue of lies to aid her meteoric rise.
In The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), Hardy drew on conventions of popular
romances, illustrated weeklies, plays, fashion plates and even his
wife's diary in this comic story of a woman in control of her destiny.
Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928) was a novelist, short story writer, and
poet of the naturalist movement, who delineated characters struggling
against their passions and circumstances. His most famous works are
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
and Jude the Obscure (1895).
TIM DOLIN teaches English at the University of Newcastle, New South
Wales. He is also editor of the Penguin edition of Under the Greenwood Tree.
