1873
3 books
- Early Hardy, before he got so heavy, though the sadness is already creeping in at the edges. You get Elfride torn between two very different men, the Cornish cliffs (including the scene that supposedly gave us the word cliffhanger), and an ending that plays fair but still stings.
- You get a wonderfully odd Arctic adventure: Captain Hobson’s Hudson’s Bay expedition finds its fort stranded on a floating ice island, while Mrs. Paulina Barnett keeps up her observations and nerve. The pacing is patient and the geography-heavy detail is part of the bargain.
- You follow Gabriel de Araceli, a streetwise Cádiz orphan who finds himself aboard the Santísima Trinidad during Trafalgar, seeing the battle through both youthful excitement and adult disillusionment. The storytelling is lively and old-fashioned, with salty sailors, comic bluster, and a real feeling for how war chews through ordinary people.