Poster of the 1923 silent film

Notre-Dame de Paris, as it was originally titled, was written in 1831 and set in medieval Paris. The great cathedral that dominates the city, standing majestically by the Seine, is in essence the central figure in the novel. Hugo takes great pains to provide the reader with an accurate picture of the church, describing its aisles, galleries, towers, intricate carvings and gargoyles. Hugo also conjures up the period in rich detail, which he absorbed from the poems of Francois Villon, the French poet of the late Middle Ages who was involved in criminal activities and had many brushes with the law which he wrote about in his poems. Hugo was able to scoop up such elements to create the background to his tale which involves thieves’ dens, masques, guilds and witch trials. Against this potent historical background, we are given a searing melodrama featuring Quasimodo, the deaf, deformed, grotesque bell ringer of the cathedral who is hopelessly in love with the beautiful, innocent Esmerelda, a singer and dancer. She is of Romany stock, a race that is shunned and persecuted by the authorities. Both these characters have a touching innocence in their natures which allows them to become the victims of capricious and merciless fate.

Quasimodo first meets Esmerelda at the Feast of Fools, an annual festival parodying ecclesiastical ritual and the cardinal elections. During the festival Quasimodo is elected ‘Pope of the Fools’ by the crowd and is subsequently beaten by the angry mob. He is generally regarded as an ugly unnatural beast and is often the target for the crowd’s violent disdain.  Esmeralda takes pity on him and offers him a drink of water. Unused to kindness of any kind, Quasimodo’s heart softens and he falls in love with the dancer and vows to devote his life to protecting her.

In a story, imbued with such bleak and dramatic themes, there has to be a dyed in the wool villain. Here we have the devious and wicked Archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo who is Quasimodo’s guardian. He has ambitions to carry out genocide against the city’s Romany population. He also has lustful designs on Esmerelda. However, before he is able to make a move in this matter, she has fallen under the spell of the handsome womanising Captain Phoebus and is hopelessly in love with the young soldier.

Incensed with jealousy, Frollo stabs Phoebus but it is Esmerelda who arrested for his attempted murder. She is captured by the king’s guard and is subsequently sentenced to death. Qusimodo attempts to shelter Esmerelda in Notre-Dame. And so the plot spirals into further darkness with terrible consequences for Quasimodo and Esmerelda.

Poster for the 1939 film version

The novel was an immediate success and became extremely popular. It was translated into English within two years of its original publication and became a favourite novel of several notable writers, including Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert and Honore de Balzac.  The novel also made the cathedral a national icon and served as a catalyst for the renewed interest in restoring many of France’s gothic structures. More significantly, it led to a series of major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19^th century and much of the cathedral’s present appearance is a result of these restorations.

The novel has been adapted in many dramatised forms, including ballets, operas, a rock musical, and several movie, television and radio versions. Book of the Week: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Perhaps it is the films which have done much to enhance the novel’s fame and reputation. In the early years of the twentieth century, the book was filmed three times in 1906, 1911 and 1917, but it was the 1923 version featuring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo that is the most memorable, not least because of Chaney’s performance. He was a master of makeup and with artifice he transformed himself into a hugely ungainly version of the misshapen bell ringer. He attached a seventy-pound rubber lump to his back, wore a leather harness that made it impossible for him to stand up straight, and donned a rubber suit covered with animal hair. Then, to disguise his facial features, he stuffed mortician’s wax into his mouth, puttied his cheeks, matted his hair and gave himself an ugly bulging false eye.

A gigantic replica of the Notre-Dame cathedral, precise in detail, was constructed on the Universal Studio’s lot and two thousand extras were used in the crowd scenes. There were several plot changes in this version. In order to ensure a happy ending, Esmerelda (Ruth Miller) is reunited with Captain Phoebus (Norman Kerry) after Quasimodo’s death.

The first sound feature was made by RKO in 1939 adapted by Bruno Frank which painted the world of King Louis XI in broad strokes, emphasising the contrast between rich and poor, freedom and repression, and medievalism and enlightenment that marked that particular era. Charles Laughton excelled as the doomed outcast. Maureen O’Hara was the beautiful Esmerelda and Cedric Hardwicke was a chilling Frollo. Again, a replica of the cathedral was constructed on the film lot, allowing Laughton to swing and gambol about its many turrets and gargoyles. Book of the Week: The Hunchback of Notre-DameBook of the Week: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Charles Laughton in the 1939 film

A French-Italian Cinemascope version came to the screen in 1956 with Anthony Quinn in the title role and Gina Lollobrigida as Esmerelda. They are the only two actors in the film to actually speak English. The rest of the cast comprised of French actors who had their voices dubbed. Quinn’s portrayal of the hunchback is less disfigured than most. However, notably this film is one of the few adaptations to use Victor Hugo’s original ending.  But it lacks the power and passion of the Chaney and Laughton versions.

The Disney studio came up with a musical animated version of the story in 1996. Tom Hulce voiced Quasimodo and Demi Moore was Esmerelda, although her singing voice was provided by Heidi Mollenhauer. The excellent music was by Alan Menken who gave the whole project a kind of Broadway show flair. The film presents a simplified version of the original story, but of course, being a Disney production, there is also the addition of humour and romance. The success of this feature underlines the continuing appeal and fascination that Victor Hugo’s dark tale has on the public consciousness. Various adaptations can be entertaining in their own way, but it is the author’s original novel that holds the full power to entrance and bewitch with the magic of seductive storytelling.

David Stuart Davies

Our edition can be found here: Hunchback of Notre-Dame – Wordsworth Editions

Victor Hugo lived on Guernsey for fifteen years. The website of the Victor Hugo in Guernsey Society is here: The Victor Hugo in Guernsey Society

Main image: The 1923 silent film starring Lon Chaney and Mary Loretta Philbin, directed by Wallace Worsley, and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 1 above: Poster for the 1923 film. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 2 above: Poster for the 1939 film. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 3 above: Charles Laughton in the 1939 film. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

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The real mystery of Edwin Drood concerns his sudden disappearance, which raises the question of whether he is dead or alive, for no body is discovered. If dead, has he been murdered and if so, by whom? Sadly, Charles Dickens died before he was able to answer these questions in print. The author had only managed to complete six of the planned twelve instalments of the story before he was taken ill at his home in Gad’s Hill in July 1870. He died shortly afterwards. He was 58.

Cover of the final part of the unfinished series.

Despite being only half finished, the story is still of great interest, remaining one of Dickens’ most popular books. With this novel the author was moving into fresh literary territory by creating a murder mystery tale. It is set chiefly in the cathedral city of Cloisterham (closely modelled on Rochester). John Jasper leads a double life as a cathedral choir master and an opium addict, travelling secretly to a London opium den to satisfy his craving. In researching the novel Dickens, accompanied by a police officer, visited such an establishment to make sure he was able to describe these places and their clients with accuracy. Edwin Drood, Jasper’s nephew, was betrothed as a child to Rosa Bud – the ‘wonderfully pretty’ heroine. Although the couple remain engaged and have an affection for each other, they are not in love, having a relationship more like brother and sister. However, Jasper harbours a deep passion for Rosa and resents Edwin.

The situation comes to a head on Christmas Eve. Unknown to Jasper, Rosa and Edwin make up their minds to break their engagement. That night Edwin disappears and jewellery belonging to him is found in the river.

Dickens left no notes as to how the story was meant to end and who was responsible for the death of Edwin. Most commentators have presumed that the culprit was Jasper but there are other suspects including the hot-tempered Neville Landless who, with his twin sister, has recently arrived in Cloisterham to complete their education. Landless has also fallen for the charms of Rosa. He and Drood take an instant dislike to each other, an antagonism that is encouraged by Jasper. Neville is suspected as being the last person to see Edwin before he disappeared.

And then there is the mysterious Dick Datchery, a man who is obviously in disguise and appears to be eager to unravel the mystery. His real identity is unknown. Another interesting character is Stony Durdles, a stonemason and local undertaker. He takes Jasper on a tour of the Cathedral graveyard and tells him about the human flesh-dissolving properties of quicklime. The implication is that Jasper later puts this acquired knowledge to use after murdering Drood, employing the caustic substance to destroy the corpse.  Whether this notion is a clear indication that Jasper was a murderer or is just a clever red herring is up to the reader to decide.

However, it appears there is evidence from three sources that confirm that Jasper is the dastardly malefactor. John Foster, Dickens’ friend and biographer, claims that the author described the plot to him, stating that the story, ‘was to be that of the murder of a nephew by his uncle’. Luke Fildes who illustrated the story said that when they were discussing a sketch, Dickens told him that, ‘I must have the double necktie. It is necessary for Jasper strangles Edwin Drood with it.’ And, finally, Dickens’ son, Charles, claimed that his father confided in him that Jasper was indeed the murderer. Strong evidence, indeed, but as the story was only half written, it is quite possible that Dickens could have changed his mind. Writers often do this, for sometimes the plot takes on a life of its own and dictates the outcome. I have known several crime writers who have switched the identity of the murderer when they have reached the final chapter. Dickens was not averse to changing the course of his novels, which were published in monthly instalments. He often reacted to the readers’ responses to characters and plot and made alterations accordingly. However, having said all that, I think we are on safe ground in assuming that Jasper is the guilty party.

The novel is peopled with the usual range of extravagant Dickens characters both comically and darkly bizarre, such as the Landless’ guardian, Mr Luke Honeythunder, Mr Septimus Crisparkle, the cathedral’s minor canon, and Mr Sapsea, the conceited auctioneer, all indicating that Dickens had lost none of his ability to present the variegated spectrum of Victorian society in an engaging and entertaining fashion.

Poster of the 1935 film version

In 1914 The Dickens Fellowship organised a dramatic trial of the character John Jasper.  This literary entertainment featured various famous writers and actors including G. K Chesterton who played the role of the judge and George Bernard Shaw who appeared as the Foreman of the Jury. John Jasper was played by Frederick T. Harry, an amateur thespian. The proceedings were lighthearted with the jury bringing in the verdict of manslaughter, as they claimed that there was not enough evidence to convict Jasper of murder.  Chesterton concluded that the mystery of Edwin Drood was insoluble!

To date there have been four movies based on the novel. Two were made in the silent era in 1909 and 1914.  In 1935, Universal Pictures, who were cornering the market in horror movies at the time, became very excited at the prospect of filming Edwin Drood, exploiting its lack of resolution. Claude Rains, fresh from his role as The Invisible Man was cast as John Jasper and the set built on the backlot representing Cloisterham cathedral and its environs was the largest for the studio since the Lon Chaney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). However, the film received mixed reviews, the general consensus being that while it was well acted it was neither a decent horror movie nor a satisfying murder mystery.

In Britain in 1993 there was a film version of the book starring Robert Powell as Jasper. Many of the scenes were filmed in Rochester and screenwriter Timothy Forder provided a satisfying if predicable conclusion to the tale. There was also a mini-series that aired on BBC2 in 2012.

Perhaps the oddest version of The Mystery of Edwin Drood was the musical play, first produced in 1985. The music and lyrics were by Rupert Holmes and presented the novel idea of allowing the audience to vote for which of the characters they deemed the murderer. The show ran on Broadway for 608 performances and won five Tonys, including Best Musical.

The book continues to fascinate readers and, if you have any liking for the works of Charles Dickens, you should give it a try, enjoying the fascinating narrative while at the same time playing detective. Who knows, you may well solve The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Main image: Rochester Cathedral. Dickens based the cathedral city of Cloisterham largely on Rochester. Credit: Neil Setchfield / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 1 above: Cover of volume six in the serial publication, 1870, of Charles Dickens’ final novel ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood,’ with cover illustrations by Charles Alston Collins.
Credit: GRANGER – Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 2 above: Poster for the 1935 film version, starring Claude Rains as Jasper. Everett Collection, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

Our edition can be found here.

The website for the Dickens Fellowship is here.

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Here we have a volume, sometimes translated as Memoirs from Underground (1864) which is a comprehensive collection of the short fiction by the great Russian writer Fydor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881). Its importance derives from the fact that more than the other works of fiction the author created, this presents a strong exposition of the Dostoevsky’s deep-seated philosophy and the innate complexities of the human condition.

This Wordsworth edition contains the novella Notes from Underground and a collection of short stories, which examine the thoughts and more particularly the dilemmas of those individuals who are considered irrelevant by society. In the novella the narrator refers to himself as the ‘underground man’, one of those apparently insignificant souls who are not seen or valued above the surface of life, in the mainstream of society. Academic critic David Rampton explains that in this approach to character, Dostoevsky ‘lays claim to his right to represent the marginal, the lowly, the dispossessed, the meek of the earth, and the need to find a new lexical register for humdrum details.’

In the novella, the unnamed narrator, one of the most remarkable characters in literature, is a former government official who has defiantly withdrawn into this metaphorical underground existence of his own volition. In full retreat from society, he composes a passionate, obsessive narrative that serves as a fierce attack on social utopianism, the ardent but impractical belief that one can create a perfect society, and an assertion of man’s irrational shifting nature. This final point is forcefully demonstrated by the narrator’s own essentially contradictory attitude regarding various aspects of life. For example, he believes that a successful society is one that alleviates pain and suffering and yet he also maintains that people need these restrictive hindrances in order to achieve  some kind of happiness. He argues that removing pain and suffering from society would take away freedom and restrict the ability to live life  with a free will rather than it being dictated by the state. In essence, the underground man is an everyman who has had the restraints on his thinking and perceptions of the world removed so that he can appreciate the contradictory nature of living. While this complex psychological dialogue ensues and is touched on in the other stories in the collection, Dostoevsky subtly infuses his narratives with fascinating richly drawn characters while exploring the dark areas of the human psyche. This focus on the irrational in human nature was very much a new thought at the time of writing, an aspect of personality which has later been explored by psychiatrists such as Freud and Nietzsche. Critics now see that Dostoevsky’s perceptions highlight the spiritual crises of our own time.  This book is one of those rare works of fiction that sets the reader to look into their own beliefs and concepts.

While it cannot be denied that the narrator can be regarded as the most glum and exasperating characters in all literature, much of this air of grim pessimism must in some part be due to the author’s own unfortunate experiences. At the age of twenty-six, Dostoevsky became active in socialist circles. His father was murdered by his own serfs while he was away in school. Another experience that greatly affected the author was his arrest and imprisonment in 1849 for his participation in a group that illegally printed and distributed socialist literature. After spending eight months in prison he was sentenced to death and told he would be shot, but this was just a ploy by the authorities meant to punish prisoners. He then spent four years in a Siberian labour camp before serving in the military for a further four years. It was with the publication of his great novel Crime and Punishment (1866) that brought about a reversal of fortunes, earning him both popular and critical success. However, the effect of his earlier dark days is reflected in the tone and substance found in Notes from Underground.

The impact of this powerful and challenging book still radiates in the artistic works by other writers had been directly influenced by it. For example Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) and more recently Notes from Underground by the English writer Roger Scruton, which is set in Prague in the 1980s and follows a young Czech writer, Jan Reichl who becomes involved with an underground intellectual scene.

While it cannot be denied that Dostoevsky’s book is far from a cheerful read, it does have rare moments of humour and is filled with a whole company of interesting and bizarre characters and intriguing scenarios, which draw the reader into his shadowed world. Also while all the stories in this volume encapsulate the themes and ideas reflecting the author’s view of the world, they are also individual entities and one can dip into the book at random and enjoy it in this fashion.

Main image: Watercolour painting of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Credit: David Monette / Alamy Stock Photo

Image above: New cover design for our edition

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‘Though Crime and Punishment is sometimes cited as the first psychological thriller, its scope reaches far beyond Raskolnikov’s inner turmoil. From dark taverns, dilapidated apartments and claustrophobic police stations, the underbelly of 19th-century St Petersburg is brought to life by Dostoevsky’s searing prose.’ Alex Gendler

It’s a big book. It’s a famous book. But have you read it? If not, you should. Devouring it is a remarkable experience. As with all great literature, the setting and the period are not as important as the ideas, dilemmas and the richness of the characters featured in the narrative which speak to each generation and have a timeless universality to them. As one critic observed, ‘the book illuminates the eternal conflicts of the human heart’.

Crime and Punishment – the new Collector’s Edition

Before we go any further, let us deal with a few facts. Crime and Punishment was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and was published in 1866. Dostoevsky was a respected and celebrated novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. His literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia and yet they have resonances for all irrespective of time or location.  Dostoevsky has many great books to his name including The House of the Dead (1862), The Idiot, (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). However, Crime and Punishment is regarded as his masterpiece.

The central character in the novel is Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished law student living in St Petersburg. So desperate is he for money that he devises a plan to kill an aged female pawnbroker. He sees her as a cruel and unscrupulous creature and he intends to take her horde of money. This, he believes, will release him from the chains of penury and allow him the ease and freedom which will bring him to greatness. He convinces himself that it is justifiable to kill the old woman on the grounds that she is a parasite, an evil in society. He believes that his superior intelligence allows him to transcend moral taboos. The desire to commit this crime and facilitate his escape from his miserable life becomes an obsession.  In desperation he steals an axe and gains access to the old lady’s apartment by pretending that he has an item to pawn. Once there he attacks her with the axe, ending her life. He also kills her half-sister, Lizaveta, who happens to stumble upon the scene of the crime. Shaken by his actions, he only manages to steal a handful of items and a small purse, leaving much of the pawn-broker’s wealth untouched. Due to sheer good fortune, he manages to escape the building and return to his room undetected.

Once he has committed the crime of the title – a double murder – and now he must suffer the punishment. However, it is not punishment of the official type. It is not arrest and incarceration that awaits Raskolnikov but mental torture. After the terrible deed has been done he comes not only to realise that his dream of freedom and worldly success was built on shifting sand  but also, to his surprise,  he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust for what he has done. His moral justifications for murdering the old woman disintegrate completely as he struggles with guilt and horror and is forced to confront the real-world consequences of his deed.

The novel follows the course of his slow breakdown under the pressure of remorse. His crumbling mental state causes him to behave in an

Crime and Punishment – Classic Edition

eccentric and suspicious manner. At this point in his life, he enters into a prolonged intellectual game of cat and mouse with Inspector Porfiry Petrovitch with whom he first encounters in a social context. Petrovitch is the head of the Investigation Department in charge of solving the murders of the pawnbroker and her sister and is convinced of Raskolnikov’s guilt.

The battle of wits between these two is one of the riveting suspenseful aspects of the novel. They circle each other like feral animals.  Petrovitch is determined to elicit a confession from Raskolnikov and attempts this through psychological means, seeking to confuse and provoke the volatile murderer into giving the game away.

Dostoevsky conceived the idea of Crime and Punishment, prompted by the case of Pierre François Lacenaire, in the summer of 1865. Lacenaire was a thief and had committed a double murder in the course of his nefarious activities. During his trial, he fiercely defended his crimes as a valid protest against social injustice. He turned the judicial proceedings into a theatrical event. He made a lasting impression upon French society and upon several writers, including Dostoevsky.

There have been over 25 film adaptations of Crime and Punishment.  The most notable include a silent version in 1923 directed in Germany by the great Robert Weine, famous for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. In 1935 an American adaptation appeared featuring a creepy performance by Peter Lorre as Raskolnikov. More recently, in 2002, there was a movie with Crispin Glover and John Hurt as the protagonists. While sticking closely to the plot, this version moved the time frame to the early years of the twentieth century. Also in 2002 there was a TV movie starring John Simm as Raskolnikov and Ian McDiarmid as Porfiry Petrovich.

No doubt we shall not have to wait too long before a new version of the novel emerges. However, it is interesting to note that the director Alfred Hitchcock, the master of the suspenseful crime movie, stated in an interview with French film maker Francois Truffaut that he would never consider filming Crime and Punishment. Hitchcock explained that he could certainly make a great film out of a good book, and even (or especially) out of a mediocre book, but never a great book, because the film would always suffer by comparison. One could never quite capture that greatness on celluloid.

Main picture: Statue of Dostoevsky in Moscow. Credit: Mihail Siergiejevicz/SOPA Images/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News

Image 1 above: Our new edition of Crime and Punishment in our Collector’s Edition series, available September 2023 price £8.99

Image 2 above: The new cover of our current classic edition, price £3.99

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Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941) holds a very special position in the pantheon of English Literature. She was perhaps the most prominent feminist writer of the 20^th Century. Her work, ideas and attitudes have as much relevance today as they did  many years ago.

Cover of the first edition of Virginia Woolf’s essay – London 1929

A Room of One’s Own (1929) is a book-length essay and is considered as a key work of feminist literary criticism. It is based on two papers Woolf read on ‘Women and Fiction’ at Cambridge the previous year. Woolf begins by announcing her basic thesis that, ‘a woman must have money and a room of one’s own if she is to write fiction’. This premise is, of course, in part, an allegory suggesting the wider point that a woman must have independence and freedom in order to realise her potential. In the essays she examines the historical barriers and disempowerment women have faced in many spheres, including social, educational and financial, along with the many areas of prejudice that have thwarted women writers through the ages. The main hurdle, she suggests, is that female writers have failed because of a lack of resources and opportunities. She examines the difficulties female writers and intellectuals faced because men held disproportionate legal and economic powers, as well as the ability to control the future of women in education and society.

Woolf maintained that as a woman starts to think of an idea, a guard enforces a rule whereby she is ‘not allowed to walk on the grass’. In obeying this rule, the woman loses her idea. Here Woolf describes the influence of women’s social expectations as ‘mere domestic child bearers ignorant and chaste’.

Woolf goes on to consider the experiences of the Brontës, George Eliot and George Sand. She illustrates her argument by making the point that there were no famous Elizabethan women writers. She uses the dramatic conceit that Shakespeare had a talented sister called Judith who was driven to suicide by artistic frustration. It was acceptable for the brother to have the freedom and power to write  – owning the mythical  ‘Room of One’s Own’ – a privilege which was denied to his sister. Woolf gives particular praise to with Jane Austen, whom she believed wrote entirely ‘as a woman’.

In the last section of the essay Woolf discusses ‘the androgynous mind’, stating, ‘If one is a man still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her’. She deplores the male centred perspective inherent in ‘some of the finest works of our greatest living writers which makes them incomprehensible to women.

Monk’s House, Rodmell, Sussex

The essay concludes by exhorting women to struggle to help realise a world in which ‘the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will be put on the body which she has so often laid down’.

A Room of One’s Own is a challenging but fascinating read which opens various avenues of thought, allowing one to see restrictions and hurdles faced by women in society – restrictions and hurdles which are still relevant today.

The Voyage Out was Virginia Woolf’s first novel. It had a long gestation period. It was probably begun in 1907; a final version draft was completed in the years 1912-13, but the book was not published until 1915.  The story, which is filled with lyrical intensity, concerns Rachel Vinrace, an innocent young lady of twenty four, who voyages to South America on board her father’s ship. Accompanying her  are her aunt and uncle, along with an assortment of English characters whose social interaction is delicately observed. This mismatch of Rachel’s fellow passengers provides Woolf with an opportunity to satirise Edwardian life and attitudes. Rachel’s journey from cloistered life in a London suburb to freedom, challenging intellectual discourse, and self-discovery, reflects the author’s own experience of moving from a repressive household to the intellectual freedom of the Bloomsbury Group. She was a very active member of this set of English writers, free thinkers, philosophers and artists who lived and worked in the Bloomsbury district of London. Woolf found their support and stimulus a great help in her work and intellectual development.

At the start of the voyage Rachel is portrayed an a simple and unthinking girl but by the end due to her interaction with her fellow passengers she becomes more independent  and self-assured, her mind having been influenced and, in one sense, educated by conversations and revelations during the journey, She has been challenged to examine her core beliefs, including her religious ones, instead of accepting them without deep thought.

Woolf introduces one of her usual themes, the repression of women, by  Rachel falling in love with a young writer, Terence, who, in contrast to other men, is interested in women’s experiences and how badly treated they are in society: ‘Doesn’t it make your blood boil? If I were a woman, I’d blow someone’s brain out’. He and Rachel fall in love, become engaged, determined to establish their future marriage on a new basis of equality. However fate intervenes to wreck their plans and the novel ends in tragedy.

Dr Sally Minogue, who provides a fascinating introduction to the Wordsworth edition, sums up the novel perceptively when she states: ‘the final undertow of the novel is tragic, as in some of [Woolf’s] finest writing, she calls up the essential isolation of the human spirit’.

Nevertheless, there is a freshness and strong sense of optimism imbued in the story. Woolf was on the brink of her writing career and her sense of excitement and enthusiasm for expressing her thoughts and ideas ripple across the pages. The novelist E.M. Forster described it as, ‘a strange, tragic inspired book … It is absolutely unafraid. Here at last is the book which attains unity as surely as Wuthering Heights, though by a different path’.  Despite such praise, it is true to say that The Voyage Out has, undeservedly,  been overshadowed by the success and notoriety of Virginia Woolf’s subsequent novels, which is a great pity  for it has just many remarkable qualities as the author’s later fiction.

Main image: A Room of One’s Own – A writing room in the garden of the former home of Virginia Woolf. Credit: Luise Berg-Ehlers / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 1 above: Cover of the First Edition, London 1929 Credit: Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 2 above: Monk’s House, the home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf 1919-1941 in the village of Rodmell, East Sussex. Credit: Rob Cole Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

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Our Mutual Friend, first published in 1864, was Charles Dickens’ last completed novel. This late work gives one of the author’s richest and most comprehensive accounts of modern society, as well as perhaps his bleakest. It is true to say that this is one of Dickens’ most sophisticated works, combining savage satire and social analysis.

The August 1864 Wrapper for ‘Our Mutual Friend’

As he aged, Charles Dickens grew less sanguine about life, prompted to some extent by his failing health. This is reflected in the tone of his prose and while there are still comic moments and characters in this swan song, such as those found in his first novel The Pickwick Papers, the tone is much darker and more serious.  Dickens’ main aim in Our Mutual Friend is to present a vision of a culture almost stifled by materialistic values. This is not only illustrated by its central storyline, but also through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. There are, for example, the faded aristocrats and the nouveaux riche who gather at the Veerings’ dinner table who spout arrant nonsense and Betty Higden who fears the terrors of the workhouse and greedy plotting of Silas Wegg, ‘with a face carved out of very hard material.’

The central character in the novel is John Harmon, ‘our mutual friend’ who is promised a fortune by his father if he agrees to his wishes and marries Bella Wilfer, the daughter of his clerk. Harmon, who has been abroad and estranged from his father, is against the match. However, when John arrives back in England, he is attacked by robbers and dumped in the Thames. He escapes drowning but a man of similar build is found in the river and identified as John. He takes this opportunity to investigate the destiny that Fate has designed for him, deciding to take the name Julius Handford but later he changes it to John Rokesmith. In this latter guise he enters the employ of Mr Boffin as his secretary and eventually encounters Bella Wilfer. She has had her head turned by her belief that wealth is power, but with John’s influence she reforms, when she becomes aware of its evils.

The fact that John and Bella do eventually marry is by no means the end of their story, which threads its way through a colourful and intricate narrative containing many sub plots. So dense is the storyline that some of the original reviewers found it too complex to assess in detail. The New York Times was particularly harsh in stating that the novel had, ‘an involved plot combined with an entire absence of skill to manage it and unfold it.’

Dickens’ style was evolving further. It was as though he was experimenting with the form of the novel and it is only in the last hundred years that academics and reviewers have come to appreciate the different shading of the individuals that form the cast of Our Mutual Friend. Contemporary reviewers suggested that the characters were lacking the life and theatricality of Dickens’ earlier works, but now they are considered as a true representation of the Victorian working class and the key to understanding the structure of the society as depicted in the novel. In 1940, writer and critic Edmund Wilson wrote, ‘Our Mutual Friend … is more interesting today than it was to Dickens’ public. Certainly the subtleties and profundities that are now discovered in it were not noticed by the reviewers at the time.’

Leo McKern in the 1976 production

The greatest of Dickens’ later works focus on money and its corrupting influence. Dombey and Son and Bleak House both sound this strong note, but nowhere is it more forceful than in Our Mutual Friend.  Regarding this novel, critic and reviewer Stephen Gill observed:

‘Sickened by the vanities of the railway era, and by the jingoism voiced through every organ of the Great International Exhibition, appalled by England’s wilful ignorance of the seamy foundations of Victorian prosperity, Dickens sounds his key-note, that money is dirt and death.’

The reference to dirt is connected with John Harmon for his father achieved his wealth as a dust contractor. It was the case that dust taken from dustbins was taken to dust yards on the outskirts of the city and owned by wealthy dust contractors. The resulting mountains of dust were very valuable. In linking dust with wealth, Dickens was able to make a pertinent point concerning the relationship of the two.

Because of the dense and complicated plot and the enormous cast of characters, dramatised versions of Our Mutual Friend have been thin on the ground. The first attempts were two silent movies in 1911 and 1921, both of which presented extremely simplified versions of the story. There have been no other movie versions, but there are three BBC Television versions.

The first came in 1958 and ran for twelve episodes and remarkably, unlike most BBC series of the 1950s, it still exists in its entirety. Released on DVD in 2017 by Simple Media, it is still available to buy. The cast includes some famous names of the day, including Rachel Roberts, David McCallum and Wilfred Bramble.

The second BBC production in 1976 excluded a number of minor characters due to the limitations of a seven-episode structure but it was praised for reproducing the mood and atmosphere of the novel. This version, starring, amongst others Jane Seymour and Leo McKern, is also available on DVD as is the 1998 adaptation starring Paul McGann and Keeley Hawes, which won a BAFTA for best drama serial.

It is quite amazing to consider that all of Dickens’ novels have been filmed for the cinema or the television screen. Quite an achievement for an author and no doubt that this is because, despite their historical setting, Dickens presents humanity in all its shadings, triumphs and dilemmas. Periods and fashions may drift away, but the travails of the human heart are constant and Our Mutual Friend provides a shining example of this phenomenon.

David Stuart Davies

Main image: The cast of BBC’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’ during filming in Warwickshire. (l-r) Timothy Spall, Kenneth Cranham, Anna Friel, Steven Mackintosh, Pam Ferris, Peter Vaughan and in the foreground Martin Hancock. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 1 above: The August 1864 Wrapper for Our Mutual Friend. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 2 above: Leo McKern in the 1976 BBC production. Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

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Thomas Hardy’s novels of rural life in his fictional county of Wessex (standing in for Hardy’s own county of Dorset) are filled with dark moralising and pessimistic philosophy, epitomized by the author’s assertion in the final lines of The Mayor of Casterbridge that ‘happiness was but an occasional episode in a general drama of pain.’ However, despite the often bleak elements in his fiction, Hardy was such a brilliant storyteller and the creator of richly rounded and believable characters that he enthralls and engages the reader with his narratives.

The Mayor of Casterbridge is typical of his work in that it details the rise and fall of its protagonist’s fortunes with the inevitability of the doomed process. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Character’, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed title character is an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit county town in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Alan Bates as Michael Henchard

The novel begins with a shocking scene which sets the seal on the eventual tragedy. Michael Henchard, an out-of-work hay trusser, gets drunk at Wydon Priors fair. Despondent with his lot, he determines to auction off his wife Susan and his baby, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, asserting that they are only an encumbrance to him. (At the time the novel was set wife-selling in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthy.) Henchard’s wife warns him that if he goes ahead with this reckless action she will accept the results of the auction, but Henchard is too stubborn to back down and wakes up in the morning to find his family gone. Unable to ascertain the sailor’s name, he loses all trace of them. This leads Henchard to swear to make something of his life and to abstain from alcohol for twenty-one years.

Time passes and Henchard becomes a prosperous grain merchant and the Mayor of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester). Eighteen years after that fateful auction, Susan, believing her sailor husband to be drowned at sea, comes to Casterbridge with her daughter to seek out Henchard. He receives them generously and arranges to court Susan and remarry her so that respectability may be maintained and the old wound healed. However, there is problem for Henchard had been due to marry Lucetta Le Suer, a woman of means. This conflict of emotions and perceived responsibilities bring trauma once more to Henchard’s doorstep and his life begins to unravel.

While Henchard behaves badly and foolishly, Hardy very cleverly allows the reader to sympathise with him for while he is presented as a strong minded individual he is as much a victim  of omnipotent fate as the weakness of his own unstable character.

There are many twists, turns and surprises in the plot before the sad denouement, which Hardy uses very effectively and engagingly to demonstrate his belief that fate plays many tricks, most of them cruel, in a person’s lifetime. However, the inclusion of many additions to the narrative flow reflects the nature of the book’s first publication as a serial in The Graphic magazine (January – May 1886) with the author trying to include surprising plot developments in every weekly instalment. Although well-received by the critics at the time, there was a general feeling that Hardy had crammed too many incidents into his story.

As with some of his other novels, notably Tess of the D’urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd, one of the themes of this novel is the way that industrialisation and modernisation was changing the old rural ways of life and in many ways blighting the land. This was a strongly held belief by Hardy who was saddened to see the old traditions and methods of farming disappearing.

James Purefoy and Ciaran Hinds, 2003

The novel is now regarded as a masterpiece. In her 2006 biography of Thomas Hardy, the author Claire Tomalin used that very word to describe the book, adding that she regarded it as ‘a deeply imagined dramatic and poetic work, with a narrative on a grand scale and paced with extraordinary moments.’ She also regarded Hardy’s portrait of Henchard – ‘depressive, black-tempered, self-destructive and also lovable as a child is lovable’ – as one of the author’s greatest achievements.

There have been a few notable dramatised versions of the book since its publication.  In 1921 a silent film was produced, which is particularly interesting because it was made with Hardy’s collaboration and was largely shot in Sussex, with some scenes filmed in Dorchester, standing in for Casterbridge. Inevitably because of the absence of spoken dialogue and the comparative brevity of the film, the plot was simplified.  A more faithful version of the novel was produced by the BBC in 1978. This production had the leisure of seven episodes in which to deal with Hardy’s labyrinthine narrative. The series was adapted by Dennis Potter and starred Alan Bates as Michael Henchard with music by Carl Davis. This version, which was filmed entirely on location in Dorset, was well received. It was released on DVD but is currently not available.

ITV came up with a two-episode film of the novel in 2003, starring Ciaran Hinds, who was praised for his performance in the title role. The production also received positive reviews for its fidelity to the novel and capturing the mood and images of the period in which it is set.

The Mayor of Casterbridge remains a powerful and eminently readable novel which captures the richness of the period and presents a tragedy relevant to all ages.

David Stuart Davies

Main Image: Fordington, Dorchester – Back of Mixen Lane in “The Mayor of Casterbridge” Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 1 above: The Mayor of Casterbridge: Alan Bates, 1978 Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

Image 2 above: The Mayor of Casterbridge : James Purefoy, Ciaran Hinds, 2003, (c)A&E/courtesy Everett Collection. Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

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Hardy had tried for years to get into print but having failed to find a publisher for his first attempt at fiction, The Poor Man and the Lady, he deliberately adopted the style and format of the popular ‘sensational novel’ very much in the style of the dark tales of Wilkie Collins such as The Woman in White. Hardy’s novel was written to this formula, not really one of his choosing, but he was following the advice of a fellow author, George Meredith, who recognized Hardy’s talent and saw that the radical issues that dominated the narrative in The Poor Man and The Lady were the barrier to his finding a publisher.  He was told that he should attempt a novel with a purely popular and artistic focus, giving it a more complicated plot than was attempted in his earlier effort.

And so he did.

3 Wooperton Street,Weymouth

Set mainly in Dorset, the novel begins at Christmas 1835 and presents an intricate story of intrigue, violence and deception following the welfare of Cytherea Graye. She is a young girl  forced to become a lady’s maid and later a companion to the imperious and eccentric mistress of Knapwater Hall, Miss Aldclyffe, a woman whom her father had loved but had been unable to marry. However, years earlier Aldclyffe had given birth to an illegitimate son, Aneas Manston, whom she employs as her land agent and she plots that he will marry Cytherea. However, Cytherea is in love with Edward Springrove, a fledgling architect and the son of a neighbouring farmer – a character not unlike Hardy himself. The plot thickens further, for Manston is already secretly married to a down-at-heel American lady who dies under mysterious circumstances.  Manston is the darkest of villains, resorting to deception, blackmail and murder. As the novel progresses the interweaving tangle of these individuals’ lives continues to grow tighter. To say more would be stepping into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say there are many shocks and unexpected plot twists before the glimmer of a happy ending, for Cytherea at least, appears on the horizon.

One of the surprising elements of this tale is the inclusion of daring sexual aspects such as rape which feature in the novel, were very unusual for the time. There is also a strong suggestion of lesbianism which was equally remarkable to be referred to.  There is a curious sequence in which Miss Aldclyffe gets into bed with Cytherea, where there is undressing and demands for passionate kissing. This scene appears to have been included as a mere titillation for the reader for there is no further evidence of Sapphic inclinations evident in Miss Aldclyffe’s behaviour later in the story and certainly it has no significance for the mainstream plot.

One might think that it is surprising that this particular episode escaped the editor’s cut, given the moral strictures in literature at the time.  However, at this period there was little public awareness of the sexual desires between women. When parliament passed a law against the practice of sexual relations between two people of the same gender in the late 19^th century, women were not considered or included. Consequently, this scene in Hardy’s novel passed without comment or outrage. However, Hardy was always ahead of the game in dealing openly with sexual matters as his later work demonstrated.

One of the real pleasures of Desperate Measures is the way that the author interweaves the gothic elements of the story with his familiar themes of ill-fated romance and the often cruel outcomes of fate,  along with raising questions relating to the class system and the treatment of women.  Although this is an early piece of fiction from Hardy,  there is evidence of a master craftsman at work with some brilliant passages of description and metaphor and wonderfully rounded characters who convince with their intellectual and emotional lives. In addition, Desperate Remedies throws a very interesting light on to Hardy’s later and more tragic works, which also use elements of the sensational novel but these are more refined and embedded into the heavily sculpted world of pastoral realism that is the strong foreground feature of these narratives.

The novel was originally published anonymously in 1871 and several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a bright future. The general appraisal led Hardy to write Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) and a successful career was assured. As one modern critic observed: ‘Desperate Remedies can be relished for both what it is and for what it promises.’

There have been no movie or television adaptations of this novel. This is most likely because the convoluted plot and moments of extreme melodrama that sit quite effectively on the written page  might well prove difficult for a modern audience to accept in a dramatised form. Although the book is the least known of Hardy’s works and is often overlooked in the lists of his fiction, it deserves greater recognition for the richness of the prose and the engaging and often thrilling nature of the plot.

David Stuart Davies

Main image: Hardy’s picturesque birthplace in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. Credit: Travelib Europe / Alamy Stock Photo

Image above:  The slightly less picturesque 3 Wooperton Street, Weymouth where Hardy was lodging when he wrote Desperate Remedies. Credit: Matthew Lambley / Alamy Stock Photo

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born in Germany in 1749, was a versatile poet, dramatist, novelist, philosopher, statesman, scientist, artist and theatre manager. Considering this list of achievements, it is apparent that he was a man of great intellectual brilliance and energy.  His epic drama Faust appeared in 1808. It was his magum opus and completed in stages throughout his life: he began writing it in his youth and the finishing touches to Part Two were made in the year of his death, 1832, the work being published posthumously. Faust is regarded as a closet drama, which means a play to be read rather than acted. It is considered to be one of the greatest works in German literature.

Part One begins like a mystery play with the celebrated prologue in Heaven, essentially a paraphrase of the first part of the ‘Book of Job’ from The Bible. The same bargain is struck in both versions. The Lord gives Mephistopheles permission to test the goodness and integrity of God’s servant, Faust. He is a scholar and alchemist who has fallen into despair because he feels as though he has exhausted the limits of his knowledge and believes that he will only become complete if he can fuse his life with nature and the universe. Mephistopheles makes a bargain with the aged Faust. If in following his desires, he  secures one moment of complete contentment he loses his soul. Mephistopheles forces Faust to sign the pact with blood. Faust complains that the demon does not trust his word of honour, but Mephistopheles wins the argument and Faust signs the contract with a drop of his own blood.

In preparation for his trials, Faust is able by magic to regain his youth. And then with Mephistopheles he travels the world enjoying every form of earthly pleasure. He has a love affair with a simple girl, Margaret, whom he betrays. He is also responsible for her death. In response Mephistopheles attempts to capture the soul of Margaret, but the purity of her love for Faust despite his betrayal and her refusal to be rescued from death by Mephistopheles cause her to be saved.

As the first part of the play ends, Faust has yet to achieve his ambitions. In the second part, he is able to taste every form of intellectual and worldly power, but still fails to find the moment of contentment that he desires, even in the love of Helen of Troy, supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world. Mephistopheles is distraught that none of his plans to secure Faust’s soul have worked.

Now a weary old man once again, Faust surprisingly takes an interest in a scheme to reclaim land from the sea, a project which will mean little to him personally, but is able to bring untold good to a great number of people. Here, to his astonishment, in this socially constructive occupation, Faust finds profound happiness. So noble is this altruistic impulse that Mephistopheles is deprived of the soul of Faust who, like the unfortunate Margaret, is redeemed.

Part Two resembles a further exoneration of Faust. He wakes up in a field of fairies in readiness to initiate a new series of adventures and resolutions. Ultimately Faust finds himself  in Heaven where angels arrive as messengers of divine mercy to announce to him, and indeed to the reader/audience that, ‘He who strives and lives to strive/Can earn redemption still.’ It seems as though this is Goethe’s final message to the world. The whole work is psychologically enlightening and provides a timeless commentary on the human condition.

Faust has rarely been performed in its entirety on stage. Its difficulties of production are enormous, not to mention the length. However, in 2000, a complete version was performed in Hanover over two days, lasting twenty-one hours in total with intervals. Faust is primarily, a literary-poetic work, which is meant to be read and studied. Nevertheless, on rare occasions, both parts have been performed in carefully truncated adaptations. The first part by itself has received fairly frequent performances and is the basis for of Gounod’s popular opera Faust. There have been several movies based on the work, mainly by German film makers, but these are only abbreviated versions of the original.

One interesting aspect of the Wordsworth edition is that the translator, John Williams, has delved into the early versions of the text and includes a selection of Unpublished Scenarios including scenes for Walpurgis Nacht, the witches’ sabbath, material so ribald and blasphemous that Goethe did not dare publish it.

The legendary figure of the magician and charlatan Faust has not only attracted many poets, but the adjective Faustian has become synonymous for the questing nature of modern Western civilization.

David Stuart Davies

Image: Bronze group of Mephistopheles and Faust outside Auerbachs Keller, Leipzig, Germany, the first stop on their travels. Credit: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo

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