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Two On A Tower
''Two on a Tower: A Romance'' (1882) is a novel by English author Thomas Hardy, classified by him as a romance and fantasy. It is regarded as one of his minor works. It is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, set in late Victorian Dorset. Epigraph Hardy placed an epigraph at the beginning of this book. The epigraph is from a Richard Crashaw poem, ''Love's Horoscope''. It reads: "Ah, my heart her eyes and she Have taught thee new astrology. Howe'er Love's native hours were set, Whatever starry synod met, 'Tis in the mercy of her eye, If poor Love shall live or die." 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 the ...
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Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian era, Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain such as those from his native South West England. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels such as ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874), ''The Mayor of Casterbridge'' (1886), ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' (1891) and ''Jude the Obscure'' (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgian Poetry, Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Au ...
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Thomas Hardy's Wessex
Thomas Hardy's Wessex is the fictional literary landscape created by the English author Thomas Hardy as the setting for his major novels, located in the south and South West England, southwest of England. Hardy named the area "Wessex" after Wessex, the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the unification of England by Æthelstan. Although the places that appear in his novels actually exist, in many cases he gave the place a fictional name. For example, Hardy's home town of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester is called Casterbridge in his books, notably in ''The Mayor of Casterbridge''. In an 1895 preface to the 1874 novel ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' he described Wessex as "a merely realistic dream country". The actual definition of "Hardy's Wessex" varied widely throughout Hardy's career, and was not definitively settled until after he retired from writing novels. When he created the concept of a fictional Wessex, it consisted merely of th ...
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Victorian Era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the Georgian era and preceded the Edwardian era, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the ''Belle Époque'' era of continental Europe. Various liberalising political reforms took place in the UK, including expanding the electoral franchise. The Great Famine (Ireland), Great Famine caused mass death in Ireland early in the period. The British Empire had relatively peaceful relations with the other great powers. It participated in various military conflicts mainly against minor powers. The British Empire expanded during this period and was the predominant power in the world. Victorian society valued a high standard of personal conduct across all sections of society. The Victorian morality, emphasis on morality gave impetus to soc ...
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Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south-east, the English Channel to the south, and Devon to the west. The largest settlement is Bournemouth, and the county town is Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. The county has an area of and a population of 772,268. Around half of the population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation, which contains three of the county's largest settlements: Bournemouth (183,491), Poole (151,500), and Christchurch, Dorset, Christchurch (31,372). The remainder of the county is largely rural, and its principal towns are Weymouth, Dorset, Weymouth (53,427) and Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester (21,366). Dorset contains two Unitary authorities in England, unitary districts: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) ...
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Epigraph (literature)
In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document, monograph or section or chapter thereof. The epigraph may serve as a preface to the work; as a summary; as a counter-example; or as a link from the work to a wider literary canon, with the purpose of either inviting comparison or enlisting a conventional context. A book may have an overall epigraph that is part of the front matter, one for each chapter, or both. Examples * As the epigraph to '' The Sum of All Fears'', Tom Clancy quotes Winston Churchill in the context of thermonuclear war: "Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together – what do you get? The sum of their fears." * Sir Walter Scott frequently used epigraphs in his historical novels, including throughout his Waverley novels. * The long quotation from Dante's '' Inferno'' that prefaces T. S. Eliot's " The Love Song of J. Alfr ...
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Richard Crashaw
Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 – 21 August 1649) was an English poet, teacher, High Church Anglican cleric and Roman Catholic convert, who was one of the major metaphysical poets in 17th-century English literature. Crashaw was the son of a famous Anglican divine with Puritan beliefs, William Crashaw, who earned a reputation as a hard-hitting pamphleteer and polemicist against Catholicism. After his father's death, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After taking a degree, Crashaw taught as a fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge and began to publish religious poetry that expressed a distinct mystical nature and an ardent Christian faith. Crashaw was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England and in his theology and practice embraced the High Church reforms of Archbishop Laud. Crashaw became infamous among English Puritans for his use of Christian art to decorate his church, for his devotion to the Virgin Mary, for his use of Catholic ves ...
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Star-crossed
The terms "star-crossed" and "star-crossed lovers" refer to two people who are not able to be together for some reason. These terms also have other meanings, but originally mean that the pairing is being "thwarted by a malign star" or that the stars are working against the relationship.Levenson (ed.), Jill L. (2000). Romeo and Juliet, The Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford World's Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press. page 142 . Astrological in origin, the phrase stems from the belief that the positions of the stars ruled over people's fates, and is best known from the play ''Romeo and Juliet'' by the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare. Such pairings are often said to be doomed from the start. Definitions The phrase was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet'': It also refers to destiny and the inevitability of the two characters' paths crossing. It usually but not always refers to ''unlucky'' outcomes, since Romeo and Juliet's affair ended tragica ...
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Wimborne
Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poole, on the Dorset Heaths, and is part of the South East Dorset conurbation. According to Office for National Statistics data the population of the Wimborne Minster built-up area was 15,552. Governance The town and its administrative area are served by eleven councillors plus one from the nearby ward of Cranfield. The electoral ward of Wimborne Minster is slightly bigger than the parish, with a 2011 population of 7,014. Wimborne Minster is part of the Mid Dorset and North Poole parliamentary constituency. After 2019 structural changes to local government in England, Wimborne Minster is covered by Wimborne Minster and Colehill and Wimborne Minster East for elections to the Dorset Council unitary authority. Buildings and architectur ...
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Charborough House
Charborough House, also known as Charborough Park, is a Listed building (United Kingdom), Grade I listed building, the manor house of the ancient Manorialism, manor of Charborough. The house is between the villages of Sturminster Marshall and Bere Regis in Dorset, England. The grounds, which include a deer park (England), deer park and gardens, adjoin the villages of Winterborne Zelston, Newton Peveril and Lytchett Matravers: they are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, and have been called the most splendid parkland in Dorset. Descent The Estate (land), estate is listed as a Manorialism, manor in the Domesday Book of 1086. Erle The Erle (''alias'' Earl, Earle, etc.) family originated in east Devon and moved to neighbouring Dorset in about 1500, but died out in the male line on the death of General Thomas Erle (1650-1720), Thomas III Erle (1650–1720) without male progeny. His daughter and sole heiress Frances Erle (d.1728) married Edward ...
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Illegitimacy In Fiction
This is a list of fictional stories in which illegitimacy features as an important plot (narrative), plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this article. Many of these stories explore the social pain and exclusion felt by illegitimate "natural children". Illegitimacy was a common theme in Victorian literature. "Illegitimacy was a popular subject for Victorian writers, not only because of its value as a plot device, but also because of the changing laws affecting illegitimate children and their parents which kept the topic in the public eye." Written works Pre-Victorian * Geoffrey of Monmouth, ''Historia Regum Britanniae, The History of the Kings of Britain'' (c. 1136 prose history): Much attention is focused on the disputable bastardy of King Arthur, as well as the illegitimate origins of the wizard Merlin. * Sir Thomas Malory, ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' (1485 prose romance): King Arthur is conceived illegitimately when his father Uther Pe ...
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Victorian Literature
Victorian era, Victorian literature is English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). In the Victorian era, the novel became the leading literary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transformations in most aspects of English life, from scientific, economic, and technological advances to changes in class structures and the role of religion in society. The number of new novels published each year increased from 100 at the start of the period to 1000 by the end of it. Famous novelists from this period include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the three Brontë family, Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling. The Romanticism, Romantic period was a time of abstract expression and inward focus; during the Victorian era, writers focused on social issues. Writers such as Thomas Carlyle called attention to the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution and ...
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Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition (OCR), and stored in its digital database.The basic Google book link is found at: https://books.google.com/ . The "advanced" interface allowing more specific searches is found at: https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search Books are provided either by publishers and authors through the Google Books Partner Program, or by Google's library partners through the Library Project. Additionally, Google has partnered with a number of magazine publishers to digitize their archives. The Publisher Program was first known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004. The Google Books Library Project, which scans works in the collections of library partners and adds them to the digital inventory, ...
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