The Fiddler of the Reels
By Thomas Hardy
2009
First Published
3.16
Average Rating
154
Number of Pages
an excerpt from the -Talking of Exhibitions, World-s Fairs, and what not,- said the old gentleman, -I would not go round the corner to see a dozen of them nowadays.- The only exhibition that ever made, or ever will make, any impression upon my imagination was the first of the series, the parent of them all, and now a thing of old times-the Great Exhibition of 1851, in Hyde Park, London.- None of the younger generation can realize the sense of novelty it produced in us who were then in our prime.- A noun substantive went so far as to become an adjective in honour of the occasion.- It was -exhibition- hat, -exhibition- razor-strop, -exhibition- watch; nay, even -exhibition- weather, -exhibition- spirits, sweethearts, babies, wives-for the time. -For South Wessex, the year formed in many ways an extraordinary chronological frontier or transit-line, at which there occurred what one might call a precipice in Time.- As in a geological -fault,- we had presented to us a sudden bringing of ancient and modern into absolute contact, such as probably in no other single year since the Conquest was ever witnessed in this part of the country.- These observations led us onward to talk of the different personages, gentle and simple, who lived and moved within our narrow and peaceful horizon at that time; and of three people in particular, whose queer little history was oddly touched at points by the Exhibition, more concerned with it than that of anybody else who dwelt in those outlying shades of the world, Stickleford, Mellstock, and Egdon.- First in prominence among these three came Wat Ollamoor-if that were his real name-whom the seniors in our party had known well.
Avg Rating
3.16
Number of Ratings
31
5 STARS
6%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
42%
2 STARS
19%
1 STARS
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