Satires of Circumstance

Det er lenge siden Dronten har sluppet til Thomas Hardy her i sin lille krok av kyberrommet. Her er han dog tilbake, på sitt aller mest ondsinnede.

Noe av det mest fascinerende med Hardy er hvilken glede han hadde av å utsette sine skikkelser for de grusomste skjebner eller den grimmeste latterliggjøring. Som for eksempel i de femten Satires of Circumstance in Fifteen Glimpses fra 1914. Her er den første av dem:

I. At Tea
The kettle descants in a cosy drone,
And the young wife looks in her husband's face,
And then in her guest's, and shows in her own
Her sense that she fills an envied place;
And the visiting lady is all abloom,
And says there was never so sweet a room.

And the happy young housewife does not know
That the woman beside her was his first choice,
Till the fates ordained it could not be so ...
Betraying nothing in look or voice
The guest sits smiling and sips her tea,
And he throws her a stray glance yearningly.