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  <id>110077</id>
  <title><![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes (Oxford World's Classics)]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]></description>
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  <original_publication_year type="integer">1873</original_publication_year>
  <original_title>A Pair of Blue Eyes (Oxford World's Classics)</original_title>
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    <author>
    <id>15905</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Thomas Hardy]]></name>
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    <name><![CDATA[Alyson]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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  <average_rating>3.59</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
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  <read_at>Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Jan 13 05:27:23 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Mar 05 09:37:23 -0800 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Elfride is the heroine of this story, who at first appears a little dim-witted for me to indentify with. She seemed rather to be in love with love than the men who admire her. Expect the unexpected in this book.  All of the twists and turns make you think you know the road to be traveled, but the su...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12386971">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12386971]]></url>
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      <review>
  <id>50547601</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Jeana]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Riverton, UT]]></location>
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  <id type="integer">898288</id>
  <isbn>0140432663</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780140432664</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">2</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair Of Blue Eyes]]>
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  <average_rating>3.60</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>5</ratings_count>
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    <![CDATA[This novel is of special interest because of the strong autobiographical parallels between the characters and circumstances of Stephen Smith and Elfride Swancourt and those of Hardy and his first wife Emma Gifford.  This was the third of Hardy's novels to be published and the first to bear his<br/>name.]]>
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  <read_at>Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Mar 26 15:17:47 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri May 01 05:44:40 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[I have to sadly admit that A Pair of Blue Eyes--Hardy's third novel--was not as tragic as what I've come to expect in Hardy's work.  In all fairness, it doesn't mean the story is not worthwhile.  I still really, really liked it.<br/><br/>The story is about Elfride (a young girl, a writer, who is i...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50547601">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50547601]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>70278966</id>
    <user>
    <id>2459179</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Rnlockett]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
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  <read_at>Fri Nov 13 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Sep 06 15:13:25 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Nov 15 11:59:51 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Once finished, I regarded this book as an English (and therefore more prudish) version of Madame Bovary. Elfride might be a tragic heroine. I should give that thesis a little more thought before I just toss it out there, but I didn't really think the book worth that much more thought.<br/><br/>Har...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70278966">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70278966]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70278966]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>17996514</id>
    <user>
    <id>401140</id>
    <name><![CDATA[minnie]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Ireland]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/401140-minnie]]></link>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Mar 18 02:01:39 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Apr 09 06:52:10 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes was Thomas Hardy’s third published novel, written in 1873 it was autobiographical, as the heroine Elfride Swancourt is based on Hardy’s first wife Emma Gifford. The novel is set in Cornwall where Hardy met Emma in 1870.Elfride Swancourt is a sheltered rectors daughter, with r...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17996514">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17996514]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17996514]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>70078420</id>
    <user>
    <id>1055890</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Lark]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1055890-lark-fillmore]]></link>
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  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Sep 04 15:07:50 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Sep 04 15:12:19 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is the second Thomas Hardy book I have read and like the first (Far from the Madding Crowd), I loved it.  Hardy can be a bit depressing, but his writing style is poetic and beautiful. I would often go back to a phrase or sentance he wrote and re-read it because it was so beautifully written. <br/>...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70078420">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70078420]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70078420]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>4214913</id>
    <user>
    <id>115642</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Jennifer]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Arlington, VA]]></location>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[Romantics and lovers, also true Hardy fans]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Aug 07 11:32:55 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Aug 07 11:37:26 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[My high school English teacher, from AP English, gave me this book for my graduation.  She said that it was her favorite novel, and that I should read it because it was an altogether different Hardy.  I didn't get around to reading it in college, but it followed me to Bloomington when I went to purs...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4214913">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4214913]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4214913]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>43780109</id>
    <user>
    <id>1928311</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Kristi]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1928311-kristi]]></link>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
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  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
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  <read_at>Sun Jan 25 00:04:26 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Jan 20 22:57:30 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Jan 25 00:04:26 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[it is another fatalistic book! but i am interested in the story and what dramatic and tragic thing will happen to elfride by the end, as i know it will. and i didn't even read the summary.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43780109]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43780109]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>38565677</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Gavin]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Suva, Fiji]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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  <average_rating>3.60</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>10</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[This novel is of special interest because of the strong autobiographical parallels between the characters and circumstances of Stephen Smith and Elfride Swancourt and those of Hardy and his first wife Emma Gifford.  This was the third of Hardy's novels to be published and the first to bear his<br/>name.]]>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Nov 24 15:56:11 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Nov 24 15:57:19 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Interesting because it is a thinly veiled fictional account of how Hardy met his first wife.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38565677]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38565677]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>57003592</id>
    <user>
    <id>2344565</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Emily]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Nottingham, J8, The United Kingdom]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2344565-emily]]></link>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780192840738</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">16</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Fri May 22 16:25:37 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri May 22 16:25:57 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Quite over dramatic, and all of the characters frustratingly naive.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57003592]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57003592]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>40961971</id>
    <user>
    <id>1662632</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Richard]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1662632-richard]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1260582721p3/1662632.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780192840738</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">16</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Dec 26 16:33:59 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Apr 13 20:39:09 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<em>(Absent from <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/66477.Christopher_Booker" title="Christopher Booker">Christopher Booker's</a> fascinating chapter on Hardy in his <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/114823.The_Seven_Basic_Plots_Why_We_Tell_Stories" title="The Seven Basic Plots  Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker">The Seven Basic Plots</a>. A clue might lie in Hardy's Wikipedia page, which describes this novel as among the author's &quot;Romances and Fantasies&quot;, whereas all the novels Booker discusses are described as &quot;Novels of Chara...</em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40961971">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40961971]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40961971]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>3442901</id>
    <user>
    <id>4693</id>
    <name><![CDATA[علی]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[3050, Denmark]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4693]]></link>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">826915</id>
  <isbn>1853262773</isbn>
  <isbn13>9781853262777</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">1</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178729538m/826915.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/826915.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.78</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>9</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes is celebrated for its central scene which shocked and stimulated Victorian readers. Forever after it caused Hardy to be embroiled in arguments concerning the sexual morality of his novels in which he strove to show the stifling effects of social conventions on the human spirit. Rich with biographical echoes, this novel reveals the full emergence of the schematic ironies which characterize Hardy's later great works, and gives a suggestion of the tragic philosophy that came to dominate all he wrote.    The loving nature of the heroine, Elfride Swancourt, pervades this novel, which has a singular unpolished charm.]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Jul 24 05:31:02 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Dec 17 01:45:04 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[To me Hardy is the poet of vilager’s love in Wessex, love stories which are more or less tragic, tragedies of Hardy’s style, as characters, mostly women are infirm of purpose, somehow submitted to circumstances, and dying in youth. <br/>بسیاری از عشق های نافرجام و تراژ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3442901">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3442901]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3442901]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>6439702</id>
    <user>
    <id>37712</id>
    <name><![CDATA[YiShun]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[White Plains, NY]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/37712-yishun]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1174920069p3/37712.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780192840738</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">16</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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      <shelf name="read" />
    
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Nov 16 16:20:50 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Sep 19 09:12:57 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Oct 07 20:02:15 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[loved this book. deep, smart character sketches. i only found it a little bit long in a few places, but those were nyquil-induced moments. i thoroughly enjoyed this book and left it feeling like i knew who the characters were and what they wanted from life. what a satisfying read. ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6439702]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6439702]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>5798561</id>
    <user>
    <id>275248</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Nicole]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/275248-nicole]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1189102229p3/275248.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780192840738</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">16</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Sep 06 16:23:49 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Sep 06 16:24:41 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I was trying to be all highbrow about reading a classic and remember liking &quot;Jude the Obscure&quot; when I read it in high school, but this one didn't do much for me. I love old books, but I didn't find this one too compelling.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5798561]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5798561]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>18777767</id>
    <user>
    <id>76842</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Rae]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Payson, UT]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/76842-rae]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1206667510p3/76842.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">898288</id>
  <isbn>0140432663</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780140432664</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">2</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair Of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179283494m/898288.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/898288.A_Pair_Of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.60</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>5</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[This novel is of special interest because of the strong autobiographical parallels between the characters and circumstances of Stephen Smith and Elfride Swancourt and those of Hardy and his first wife Emma Gifford.  This was the third of Hardy's novels to be published and the first to bear his<br/>name.]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Mar 27 12:39:46 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon May 26 17:50:18 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Hardy's somewhat autobiographical Victorian tragedy involving Elfride Swancourt and her two beaus, Stephen Smith and Henry Knight. In spite of artificially elaborate plotting and coincidences, it is a fun novel.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18777767]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18777767]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>1320526</id>
    <user>
    <id>71048</id>
    <name><![CDATA[kranti]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[India]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/71048-kranti]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1180759966p3/71048.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">556984</id>
  <isbn>014062094X</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780140620948</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">1</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175786473m/556984.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/556984.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>2.83</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>6</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[This is a title in an inexpensive range of classics in the &quot;Penguin Popular Classics&quot; series.]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun May 20 02:09:52 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 16 19:45:15 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[hardy at his subtle best.... elfride and her transient 'girly' instincts moved me, made me furious and sympathetic at the same time. can you believe i had tears in my eyes when elfride makes the flip-flop of lovers!]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1320526]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1320526]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>28803611</id>
    <user>
    <id>1381165</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Kamal]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1381165-kamal]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto-U-111x148.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780192840738</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">16</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>0</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jul 30 16:40:00 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Jul 30 16:42:48 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[&quot;Her eyes, in them was seen a sublimation of all of her; it was not necessary to look further: there she lived. A misty shady blue which had no beginning or surface, and was looked into rather than at.&quot;]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28803611]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28803611]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>38012229</id>
    <user>
    <id>1702360</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Paige]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Portland, OR]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1702360-paige]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1226899043p3/1702360.jpg]]></image_url>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">110077</id>
  <isbn>0192840738</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780192840738</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">16</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171631064m/110077.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110077.A_Pair_of_Blue_Eyes</link>
  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>369</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
  </description>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Nov 17 21:29:13 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Nov 17 21:30:44 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I appreciate that this novel was loosely based on Hardy's meeting of his beloved wife, but still, this novel is slow and rather boring.  I love Hardy to death, but this is my least favorite.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38012229]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38012229]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>12349484</id>
    <user>
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    <name><![CDATA[Amelia]]></name>
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    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
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  <read_at>Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[Melodramatic and sentimental and wonderfully distressing.  I first read this while long-distance love-struck during a semester abroad.  It is my sentimental favorite.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12349484]]></url>
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      <review>
  <id>633205</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[mahboobeh]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Iran, Islamic Republic of]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
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  <date_added>Sun Apr 08 11:16:31 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 16 17:42:56 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[16 salam k shod dare yek ghafase az ketab be room baz shod . in yeki az unhayist k hamishe be yad khaham dasht az beyne un hame ketab !]]></body>
    
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  <id>15748530</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Amber]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]>
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  <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA['Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'  Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.  The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.    Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyes  expresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.  Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name?]]>
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  <read_at>Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[This book was typical for Thomas Hardy. Girl gets scorned by lover, chooses another - dies.]]></body>
    
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