Desperate Remedies

bigamy yet.' 'The reproof was not needed,' said Owen, with a little bitterness. 'What can I do--a man with neither money nor friends--whilst Manston has Miss Aldclyffe and all her fortune to back him up? God only knows what lies between the mistress and her steward.

Dependence, Manston's coerced marriage, bigamy/fire revelations, and Springrove reunion form Hardy's first published sensation architecture with detective pressure, so plot scores 87.

Edward Springrove--who now removed his hat for a while, to cool himself. He was rather above her brother's height. Although the upper part of his face and head was handsomely formed, and bounded by lines of sufficiently masculine regularity, his brows were somewhat too softly arched, and finely pencilled for one of his sex.

Cytherea, Edward, Manston, Aldclyffe, and Owen fill typed sensation roles — innocent, lover, villain-steward, guilty patron — with occasional psychological heat, so cast scores 84.

DESPERATE REMEDIES By Thomas Hardy CONTENTS PREFATORY NOTE I. THE EVENTS OF THIRTY YEARS II. THE EVENTS OF A FORTNIGHT III. THE EVENTS OF EIGHT DAYS IV. THE EVENTS OF ONE DAY V. THE EVENTS OF ONE DAY VI. THE EVENTS OF TWELVE HOURS

Dated-event chaptering and detection beats keep thriller tempo unusual among later Hardy pastorals, so pace scores 86.

To imagine the inside of the engine-house, whence these noises proceeded, was now a necessity. No window, but crevices in the door, through which, probably, the moonbeams streamed in the most attenuated and skeleton-like rays, striking sharply upon portions of wet rusty cranks and chains; a glistening wheel, turning incessantly, labouring in the dark like a captive.

Early Hardy intrigue prose with architectural/engine-house bursts — functional rather than Egdon lyric — so prose scores 83.

KNAPWATER HOUSE, August 3, 1864. 'Miss Aldclyffe is in want of a young person as lady's-maid. The duties of the place are light. Miss Aldclyffe will be in Budmouth on Thursday, when (should G. still not have heard of a place) she would like to see her at the Belvedere Hotel, Esplanade, at four o'clock.

Hocbridge, Budmouth, Knapwater House, and the Casterbridge Chronicle serve plot machinery more than ecological presence, so world scores 82.

Ambrose Graye, a young architect who had just begun the practice of his profession in the midland town of Hocbridge, to the north of Christminster, went to London to spend the Christmas holidays with a friend who lived in Bloomsbury.

Christmas visit and the queenly Cytherea namesake plant inheritance and desire before steward intrigue — solid sensation hook, so hook scores 85.

God only knows what lies between the mistress and her steward, but since this has transpired--if it is true--I can believe the connection to be even an unworthy one--a thing I certainly never so much as owned to myself before.

Sensation scaffolding (bigamy, fire, steward villain) as Hardy's debut published novel — later Wessex tragedy grows from this plot engine, so innov scores 84.

'Yes--give me one half-minute's row on the lake here now, just as you did on Budmouth Bay three years ago.' He handed her into the boat, and almost noiselessly pulled off from shore. When they were half-way between the two margins of the lake, he paused and looked at her. 'Ah, darling, I remember exactly how I kissed you that first time,' said Springrove.

After Aldclyffe's dying plea, Cytherea and Edward's half-minute lake row echoing Budmouth Bay closes the sensation arc with earned restorative relief, so ending scores 86.