ABSTRACT
Although much has been written about Thomas Hardy’s portrayal of the Wessex rustic community in his novels, many of his short stories have been sadly neglected, particularly those which comprise A Few Crusted Characters. Hardy demarcates the two sections of Life’s Little Ironies into “a set of tales,” averaging about twenty pages each, and the much shorter “Some Colloquial Sketches.” The sketches, written in late 1890-early 1891 (Ray 228), comprise about one-third of the pages in the final 1912 edition of Life’s Little Ironies. Reading A Few Crusted Characters as a whole, one is struck by the uneven lengths of the stories, yet closer examination shows that Hardy adroitly organized them into a harmonious progression. Indeed, they are told in a sequential pattern, in a natural rhythm which might echo the clopping of Burthen’s carthorse as it travels around the bends and up the hills of the country road. There is, moreover, an intrinsic connection between the story and the person who is encouraged to relate it. For instance, Burthen’s knowledge of Tony Kytes’s exact route is credible given that he himself has traveled it many times as, indeed, do the passengers and reader on this particular autumn afternoon. One may wonder why these delightful stories have been overlooked by readers and critics alike because close reading reveals the subtlety of Hardy’s careful organization. As a whole, A Few Crusted Characters portrays the most basic aspect of human community – family relationships and love. Depictions of these relationships are linked thematically by the use of deception and disguise, forming a motif which provides another commentary on the concept of love.
