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Two on a Tower
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{{Short description|1882 novel by Thomas Hardy}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} {{infobox book | | name = Two on a Tower| title_orig = | translator = | image = Two on a Tower.jpg | caption = ''First edition title page'' | author = [[Thomas Hardy]] | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | series = | genre = Novel | publisher = | release_date = 1882 | english_release_date = | media_type = Print | pages = }} '''''Two on a Tower: A Romance''''' (1882) is a novel by English author [[Thomas Hardy]],<ref>{{cite book|author=John Sutherland|author-link=John Sutherland (author)|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzJ3yNVVqtUC&pg=PA643|chapter=Two on a Tower|pages=643|title=''The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature''|orig-year=1989|year=1990|publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804718424}}</ref> classified by him as a romance and fantasy. It is regarded as one of his minor works. It is one of Hardy's [[Thomas Hardy's Wessex|Wessex]] novels, set in late [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[Dorset]]. ==Epigraph== Hardy placed an [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] at the beginning of this book. The [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] is from a [[Richard Crashaw]] poem, ''Love's Horoscope''. It reads: <blockquote> "Ah, my heart her eyes and she<br> Have taught thee new astrology.<br> Howe'er Love's native hours were set,<br> Whatever starry synod met,<br> 'Tis in the mercy of her eye,<br> If poor Love shall live or die." </blockquote> ==Plot== ''Two on a Tower'' is a tale of [[star-crossed]] love in which Hardy sets the emotional lives of his two lovers against the background of the stellar universe. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is ten years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart. This is Hardy's most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide{{according to whom|date=July 2023}} and the fullest expression of his fascination with science and astronomy. ==Background== In the 1895 preface Hardy wrote, "The scene of the action was suggested by two real spots in the part of the country specified, each of which has a column standing upon it. Certain surrounding peculiarities have been imported into the narrative from both sites." [[Wimborne]] was the location of the "little town" of "Warborne",<ref>T. Hardy, Two on a Tower (London: Penguin, 2012; orig. edn 1882), p.276</ref> and [[Charborough House]] was the location of the "Welland House" in ''Two on a Tower''.<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/images/maps/windle.htm Letter from Hardy to Bertram Windle, transcribed by Birgit Plietzsch, from CL, vol 2, pp 131–133] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102192023/http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/images/maps/windle.htm |date=2 January 2007 }}</ref> Hardy's intention, in his own words, was to "set the emotional history of two infinitesimal lives against the stupendous background of the stellar universe".<ref>[From Hardy's 1895 preface to the book]</ref> ==Criticism== Because the book defied the social norms of the day, upon release the book was called shocking, repulsive, and one critic called it Hardy's "worst yet."<ref>Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007.</ref> Hardy's biographer, Claire Tomalin, says Hardy was "writing for serialization, which drove him to pack in far too much plot," and he wrote too fast "without time to think or reconsider."<ref>Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007.</ref> Hardy wrote in a letter to Edmund Gosse on 10 Dec 1882, "I get most extraordinary criticisms of T. on a T. Eminent critics write & tell me in private that it is the most original thing I have done...while other eminent critics (I wonder if they are the same) print the most cutting rebukes you can conceive—show me (to my amazement) that I am quite an immoral person...”<ref>{{citation|title=Thomas Hardy's 'poetical matter' notebook|isbn = 9780191551789|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_v58KnjEI5sC&q=purdy+and+milgate&pg=PR16|last1 = Dalziel|first1 = Pamela|last2 = Millgate|first2 = Michael|date = 29 January 2009| publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref> ==See also== *[[Illegitimacy in fiction]] *[[Thomas Hardy's Wessex]] *[[Victorian literature]] ==References== {{Reflist}} == External links == * [https://books.google.com/books?id=DZb5w8HyY5MC&q=two+on+a+tower ''Two on a Tower''] full text at [[Google Books]] {{Gutenberg|no=3146|name=Two on a Tower}} * {{librivox book | title=Two on a Tower | author=Thomas Hardy}} {{Thomas Hardy}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Two on a Tower}} [[Category:1882 British novels]] [[Category:Novels by Thomas Hardy]] [[Category:English novels]] [[Category:Novels set in Dorset]]
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