Review: Horror Story: "Barbara of the House of Grebe" by Thomas Hardy

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Nineteen-year-old Lord Uplandtowers decides he’s going to win the heart of his neighbors’ daughter, seventeen-year-old Barbara. He’s not exactly in love, though his precise motives are never given. His friend tells him he doesn’t stand a chance because she “isn’t drawn to your lordship by love: and as for thought of a good match, why, there’s no more calculation in her than in a bird.” Well, sort of. At a Christmas ball her parents hold, she dances with him, not spurn his affections, but also doesn’t seem to favor his attentions over any other young swain’s. He thinks he’ll just give it time. Just before midnight, she complains of a headache and retires. There’s no longer any reason for Uplandtowers to stay. Plus, he’s noticed lights departing guests already. He’s about to make his excuses to his host and hostess who insist no one else has left. He stays a little while longer to suit them, but soon begins the ten mile journey home. In the morning—late the next morning—he’s awaked by Barbara’s anxious father. She’s disappeared. He’d hoped, if she’s eloped, it was with his lordship and not with… the other guy. But it looks like it was with the other guy, Edmond Willlowes, someone with no prospects. His one redeeming characteristic is physical beauty. They search the countryside for her, but only know for sure when they receive a letter from London. They’re married. What’s done can’t be undone, her parents say. After a while in the cold cruel world, the newlyweds come home. Barbara’s parents welcome them. Her father even has a cottage fixed up where they can live. At his expense, he offers to send his son-in-law aboard for a year to finish his education. And then, one night, there’s a fire in a theater in Italy. Edmond heroically saves the lives of strangers, but his face and hands are burned. The rest of the story confirms my impression of Thomas Hardy as one sick, sadistic puppy. He tortures not only poor Edmond—his sin was marrying above his station, I guess? By the end of the story, Barbara is a quivering, slavering mass just this side of insanity. What’s even better is after Barbara’s death, a preacher gives a sermon on “the folly of indulgence in sensuous love for a handsome form merely.” True love, rational and reasonable love “were those based upon intrinsic worth.” Whatever that means. Let’s add some insult to injury, shall we? So, if Edmond had had some money or property, things would have gone differently? This is one of ten stories in a frame narrative A Group of Noble Dames. I imagine some of them are cheerier than this one, but no way in the inferno would I read any of them. It is available at Project Gutenberg for anyone who wants to read it and maybe see something redeemable in it that I might have missed. Nah, I don’t think so: _____ Title: “Barbara of the House of Grebe” Author: Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) First published: The Graphic December 1890 Source: ISFDB