A Pair of Blue Eyes is similarly a romance, but it is possible to see the influence of melodrama, too, that element of sensation which had been predominant in Hardy’s first published novel, two years earlier.
Elfride Swancourt is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Corwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began A Pair of Blue Eyes during the beginning of his courtship of his first wife, Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary ...
A PAIR OF BLUE EYES by Thomas Hardy “A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.”
Table of Contents Introduction Synopsis of A Pair of Blue Eyes Alternative Book Cover Characters Key Takeaways Spoilers FAQs about A Pair of Blue Eyes Reviews About the Author Conclusion Introduction What is A Pair of Blue Eyes about? This novel explores the life of Elfride Swancourt, a vicar’s daughter in Cornwall. She entangles herself in love with two men: the young architect, Stephen ...
Summary of 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' by Thomas Hardy: A Detailed Synopsis
Other articles where A Pair of Blue Eyes is discussed: Thomas Hardy: Early life and works: …endeavours, and his next novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), drew heavily upon the circumstances of their courtship for its wild Cornish setting and its melodramatic story of a young woman (somewhat resembling Emma Gifford) and the two men, friends become rivals, who successively pursue, misunderstand ...