Thomas Hardy, Sensationalism, and the Melodramatic Mode [Paperback]

The first full-length study of sensationalist and melodramatic elements in Hardy's novels uses six of his texts to demonstrate the ways in which Hardy uses the melodramatic mode to advance his critique of established Victorian cultural beliefs through the employment of non-realistic plot devices and sensational 'excess.'Introduction: Thomas Hardy and the Melodramatic Imagination PART I: MELODRAMAS OF MASCULINITY  DESPERATE REMEDIES AND THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE 'I love you better than any man can': Sensation Fiction, Class, and Gender Role Anxiety in Desperate Remedies 'No man ever loved another as I did thee': Melodrama, Masculinity, and the Moral Occult (I) in The Mayor of Casterbridge PART II: SENSATIONAL BODIES, MELODRAMATIC SPECTACLES  FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD AND A LAODICEAN 'Kiss me too, Frank&.You will Frank kiss me too!': Sensationalism, Surveillance, and Gazing at the Body in Far from the Madding Crowd 'A mixed young lady, rather': Melodrama, Technology, and Dis/Embodied Sensation in A Laodicean PART III: MELODRAMAS OF MODERNITY AND CLASS STATUS  THE HAND OF ETHELBERTA AND JUDE THE OBSCURE 'Lady  not a penny less than lady': Social Satire, Melodrama, and the Sensational Fiction of Class Status in The Hand of Ethelberta Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery?': Sensationalist Tragedy, Melodramatic Modernity, and the Moral Occult (II) in Jude the Obscure Conclusion: Hardy, the Melodramatic Mode, and Victorian Fiction

Nemesvari locates six Hardy novels in two groupings: fiction of ingenuity and fiction of environment and character. The analyses center on masculinity, public spectacles, and class status, and the prevailing issue is this: how does the oral tradition of Dorset affect Hardy's theory of fiction? The answer, Nemesvari writes, is that Hardy drew on melodrama for his plots and ideas, and melodrama allowed intense emotion, exaggerated plot twists, sudden revelations, sensational scenes, and appeals to readers' shared communallc-