Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Ten of the best books for Valentine's Day gifts

At the Christian Science Monitor, Marjorie Kehe came up with a list of ten perfect books for Valentine's Day gifts.

One title on the list:
Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy

Even devotees of Hardy's fiction will find it hard to think of Sergeant Troy's supposed death from drowning without recalling the film version, with Terence Stamp leaving his clothes and his troubles behind him on a Dorset beach. Years later, as Bathsheba teeters on the brink of marriage to Boldwood, Troy, her "dead husband", returns to reclaim her. Boldwood shoots him.
Read about another book on the list.

Far from the Madding Crowd also appears on John Mullan's list of ten of the best fake deaths in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue