On the Western Circuit

by Thomas Hardy, Peter Leigh

When the unhappily married Mrs. Harnham agrees to help her young protegee Anna write to her lover, she begins the development of an ill-fated misunderstanding.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, School, Fiction, Historical Fiction, British Literature

36 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1891

About the author

Thomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain.

The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. In the novel, Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff staring into the stony eyes of a trilobite embedded in the rock that has been dead for millions of years. This became the archetypal — and literal — cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Helena Vande Ginste · Rating 4 out of 5]

RAAAAAAAAHH

[˗ˏˋ n a j v a ˊˎ˗ · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★½

Hardy seems unable not to capture my heart —all the dazzling sufficiency and grace prancing upon each and every word of his choice…
This time, however, despite the pleasure he induces in me with the charm his pen exudes, the story did not captivate me with an alluring beauty, as it usually does. I for one would’ve loved to put his omniscient view to use to connect with their inner world, thoughts and emotions, to appreciate their sensational state and grasp their emotional experience.

I assume I shall return to this short story, not soon, but someday.

[Ami Lea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, Thomas Hardy. He plays with my sensibilities and conjures up such clear images in my mind, that I never want to stop reading his writing. This is a terribly tragic story with a typical Hardyesque ending. The guy never gets the girl, and if he does it is at his own peril. It is hard to decide who to feel sympathy for. Is Edith the character most worthy of pity, or is it Raye? Is he a scoundrel who got what he deserved, or was he played by a cunning and contriving woman? Is it possible that Raye was too busy being in love with himself to truly appreciate either woman? Is the whole story a jab at the marriage laws of the day? Hardy, in his romantic novels, tends to emphasize that socially acceptable unions and passion do not necessarily travel in tandem. He also uses the art of writing as the catalyst for love in this story, and as a person who loves books and poetry, I found that enchanting. I always leave a Hardy novel feeling afflicted and deeply affected, and this story doesn't disappoint; Another fantastically sordid tale by a gifted writer.

[Rocío G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardy is as tragic and lovely as ever. This story, with its dastardly hero and two wronged heroines, could've easily been a novel, but the shortness adds to the sense of fateful misery.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read Thomas Hardy before - I know, shameful! - however, I am studying his poetry in one of my university courses and I decided to do some extra reading since I really do like his poems.

Let me get the two things I didn't quite like out of the way so I can then get to what I really loved about this short story. First of all, I felt like this should have been a lot longer, perhaps a novella or even an outright novel. While Hardy gives us all the necessary information we need about the three main characters, I feel that dramatizing their lives both pre and post story would go a long way into giving the reader more time to experience this unfolding tragedy. As it is, the story ends rather abruptly and the "resolution" between Raye and Edith is handled so quickly that I still have a hard time buying into it. Basically this story just needs more room to breathe, and I feel as if there needs to be more done to explore what happens after Raye's and Anna's marriage.

That said, and considering this is my first real experience with Hardy, I absolutely loved this story. The writing feels very ... modern is the best way to describe it. The opening carousal scenes have an almost hallucinatory feel to them where both ecstasy and, somehow, sadness are both blended together, as if the strange rotation actually displaces the characters in a way as to allow for the spirit Raye falls in love with to be mixed up with the wrong person. This dizzy joyousness explains a lot about how Raye wasn't really seeing straight when he meets Anna and how this blending causes the intimate confusion when he accidentally holds Edith's hand.

These first two chapters are a masterpiece, and I was just very slightly let down that the rest of the story didn't quite live up to the opening, though I do realize that Cyrano de Bergerac, which this story resembles, was actually published after this story so I can't fault it for lack of originality. I just felt that Hardy had set up a fantastic idea but then sort of lets it play out fairly straight the rest of the way. And, to be fair, maybe that's why the story is so effective because it paints this one, ecstatic moment, and then, just like in real life, forces the characters to have to deal with the consequences of that joyous abandon. So I suppose I can't fault Hardy on this point other than to say I felt the poetry of the writing falls off a little bit for the remaining 4 chapters.

Yet still the writing is exquisite and the mixing of joy and sadness is remarkable. I admit to not quite knowing where my emotions were as I read this and even now as I sit here thinking and writing about what I just read. Based on what I've read of his poetry Hardy as a very unromantic view of humanity, but he's not a nihilist, either, he's just realistic about people behave and is keenly aware of a person's limitations and how appearances can be deceiving.

I've had a few Hardy novels on my to read list for awhile, but I think I will be moving them much closer to the top of the list so that I can experience more of this wonderful writer.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, tragic short story which will leave a greater impression on me than many other novels I have read. Hardy writes a terrible situation where a young woman, Anna, and a young man fall in love. Unfortunately, when the man, Raye, returns to London for his work and requests his beloved to write to him, the simple woman is hopelessly unable to and begs her mistress to assist her. Likewise the situation of her mistress is helpless- as she cleverly crafts romantic letters to Raye, she too falls in love with him. Eventually, Raye weds Anna and eventually she is forced to confess that she is illiterate. Raye has been ruined and deceived into marrying a stranger... I especially liked how Raye and the mistress were, in a way, mentally married to each other- a shame that such a love is rarely found these days.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this and cannot wait to read more of his works!

[Ælshunīv · Rating 4 out of 5]

a compelling anthologized story about a rural girl who wooed a charming urban man quite accidentally in a steam fair, but failed to charm him later on by her lacking literacy which made her to harbor to her mistress for writing voluptuous letters on her behalf. so in a sense, this is a story about a maid catfishing in 19th century written by a man who lived a rural cottage core fantasy life quite like that of jane austen. we also get to see the mistress's dilemma with her own marriage life and how she was not quite in charge of her decisions and interests when her parents and society put her up to marrying a rich blase wine merchant. her stealthy journey as a married older woman with this charming infatuating man ruined everyone's life involved. it can also be a social criticism on how and why literacy would affect people's romantic lives during the second half of the 19th century and i think hardy did a pretty great job with portraying female characters of victorian era.

[Daria King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardy’s works are dramatic. It’s my first impression after I read the Mayor of Casterbridge. Then this book. One man and two women. Their fates were entangled like Cupid played a mischief. Experienced man seduced an innocent country girl once he was attracted by her beauty. But he loved the spirit and intelligence of a married woman who helped the girl write love letters. By accidental touch, the madame was fascinated by this young man, who lit her interests and desires damped by her dull marriage with an old merchant.

[Maryam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hardy is a master of capturing the subtleties of human experience.
If we liken the spectrum of human motivations and states of mind to a rainbow, Hardy occupies a top position among those writers who are capable of picking out the in-between shades and hues as one major color slowly makes a shift towards the other. All in all, "On the Western Circuit" is a vivid example of Hardy's great command over writing fiction.

[Nagihan Kilic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh what a beautiful and yet tragic story! The moving thing about this story is that everyone does something wrong and yet no one is really at fault, and the story doesn’t judge them, but rather presents their actions and the consequences dispassionately, as though nothing could possibly have been any different.

It’s definitely a worth reading story!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"But you are ruined!"
"What matter!" he said shrugging his shoulders. "It serves me right."

"Reading over all those tender letters to me signed 'Anna,'" he replied with dry resignation.

That's the spirit! I only wish Thomas Hardy could deliver that throughout the whole short story and not only on the last few pages. Anyway, still better than Virginia Woolf.

[asia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this short story. Hardy's writing is precise and delightful to read. The amount of meaning and emotions compressed into a work of this size is incredible, and I am excited to get to know more of his poems and stories.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly tortured love story, but also has the quintessentially Victorian class snobbery. The premise is weak, but the story is sensuous, melodramatic, and sensational. Romance is exhilarating but also stressful

[Wicked Witch of the Words · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh dear Lord!
What masterpiece did I just read?

[sage short · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this short story for one of my classes...didn't think it was anything show-stopping but it was alright!

[dominika · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know it's a great story when you still think about it even a year after reading it.

[Cas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade: A-

I had to read this for my uni degree.

[tychemis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Avery Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Which came first, "Cyrano" or "On the Western Circuit"?

[latespringg · Rating 4 out of 5]

GAGGING. fiquei mt passada lendo essa porra me entreteve horrores, a historia eh tudo de bom e uma critica mt forte a questões de gênero e classe! mas isso nao importa e ss que foi mt babadeiro

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best line: "...The middle-class male of a century wherein sordid ambition is the master-passion that seems to be taking the time-honoured place of love."

[Rachel Pace · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS. STORY.


Normally I cope with novels/short stories that bother me greatly by crying to the people of Good Reads and finding comfort in the mutual pain. But unfortunately it appears that everyone is pretty quiet about this story, which basically makes everything worse.

Anyway...

So this is one of those stories that just makes me really frustrated. In the end, I feel like the characters did their duty and did what had to be done, which is rare for this type of story. I also liked how the difference between intellectual attraction and physical attraction was addressed, and why one is an obviously better basis for love and marriage than the other. I'll stop there so that I don't spoil anything.

All in all, this is a really good short story, and I want more people to read it and leave reviews on it so that I'm not alone. Thank you and goodbye.

[Abir]

2.75⭐️

[talia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna and Charles meet at a steam-powered fair and find that they have an instant physical connection. Charles' work prevents him from staying in the city, so the lovers must keep in contact through letters. Unfortunately, Anna is nearly illiterate, and her older friend Edith Harnham corresponds with Charles on her behalf, ultimately developing an intellectual relationship with Charles that leaves Anna out entirely.

I really enjoyed this story! I quickly began to sympathize with the characters, and I became invested in their star-crossed love triangle.

[Lauren Weems · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful and tragic. The twists and turns in this story kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I read it.