| H03086 "ALICIA'S DIARY QUESTION" 10/26/03 HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE | ||||||||
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Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 08:53:22 -0800 From: Betty Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu> Subject: Re: Alicia's Diary Your assumption is correst, Martin, the archives show that "Alicia's Diary" has never been mentioned before on the Forum in all its six years of operation. Thanks for pointing this out, Betty > 'Alicia's Diary' ! ... Is this a first for the Forum? > ÿ Best |
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From: Thudecki@cs.com Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:45:53 EST Subject: Alicia's Diary Hi everyone, I am unfamiliar with "Alicia's Diary". Is this a novel or a short story? I am very interested in reading it. Also, when was the work written? Have a great day! Janine |
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Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:25:13 +0000 From: Martin Ray <m.ray@abdn.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Alicia's Diary Below, I'll paste the details of 'Alicia's Diary' which are published on TTHA's Short Stories page: 'Alicia's Diary' Serial: Manchester Weekly Times (Supplement), 15 October 1887, pp. 2-3, and 22 October 1887, pp. 2-3. The division occurs at the end of section 5. Purdy notes that 'the story was sold to Tillotson & Son for their syndicated fiction business [...] and was widely printed, especially in provincial papers. American rights they sold to S. S. McClure for his similar syndicate in November 1887' (p. 152). A Changed Man and Other Tales (London: Macmillan, 1913), pp. 87-128. Published at 6s. in an edition of 10,000 copies on 24 October 1913. A Changed Man and Other Tales (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1913), pp. 85-126. A Changed Man and Other Tales (London: Macmillan, 1914), pp. 85-125. Volume XVIII of the Wessex edition. In 1923, Hardy twice stated in his 'Memoranda, II' notebook that the manuscript of 'Alicia's Diary' was 'not in existence'. Martin Dr Martin Ray School of English University of Aberdeen Aberdeen AB24 3UB m.ray@abdn.ac.uk |
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From: "Gary Alderson" <Gary.Alderson@btinternet.com> Subject: Re: Alicia's Diary Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 04:44:02 -0000 I found an e-text of the story at the attached link. Needless to say for you scholarly people, you can never trust it's dead right for research purposes etc... At a first glance, it's very un-Hardy-like. If it wasn't for the reference to "Budmouth Regis" I might have thought this was Austen! Gary Alderson http://www.literatureclassics.com/etexts/186/519/ |
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From: Patrick Mulcahey <mulcahey@pacbell.net> Subject: RE: Alicia's Diary Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 23:39:52 -0800 Thanks so much for this! I'm no less in the dark about what Hardy did or didn't think of travel and/or tourism, but the story was satisfying enough. I might have thought it was Wilkie Collins; the hysteria and overheated atmosphere of dread put me in mind of Marian and her neurasthenic sister Laura in THE WOMAN IN WHITE. Of course, once the weir and the hatches rear into view, we know whose country we're in. I wonder about another comparison: THE TURN OF THE SCREW. Is Alicia a reliable narrator -- or kind of a utcase? Patrick Mulcahey |
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Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 06:47:08 -0800 From: Betty Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu> Subject: Re: Alicia's Diary Yes, it is an unusual story Gary, with the exception of the usual Hardyan ploy of the man marrying the wrong woman at the end. Jane Thomas who edited my copy of *A Changed Man and Other Stories*, writes in her introduction "The influence of Robert Browing can be detected in 'Alicia's Diary . . . '" which I thought rather strange. Does anyone else see evidence of Browning's influence here? Betty Cortus |
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From: Patrick Mulcahey <mulcahey@pacbell.net> Subject: FW: Alicia's Diary Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 11:37:58 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Status: I think she must only refer to Browning's knack for having his narrators tell us a story other than the one he or she thinks to be telling. I.e., Alicia thinks she is telling of a doomed forbidden love, her own. We hear her telling the tale of a cad who gets himself engaged to an unwitting country girl with some money, only to learn that the sister, on whom a larger fortune is settled, is solitary and neurotic and ripe for the picking. Something like that? At very least there is ambiguity enough to read the story two ways. Well, I wonder. Sorry your beach days are under smoke. The news is full of them and of course of the injuries and mortalities. Patrick |