Smile and the world smiles with you, Hardy

When I was at home over Christmas, I found my copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. What I'd forgotten was what was done to the cover:

I was in some college class, and a friend said "She looks too sad" and stuck that on there. So I promptly secured it with Scotch tape and it is never coming off. Because it's the best part of the book.

When I was going through my Meryl Streep stage, I very very much wanted to watch The French Lieutenant's Woman, because it looked like it would have all kinds of delightful shippy things in it, and oh what fun. But obvs I had to read the book first, so I got it, read it, was none too into it, BUT Fowles quotes quite a bit of Hardy's poetry in it.

So I decided to finally read Tess because of that. And then I found out that Hardy was a big Mr. SadPants, which is not so much my thing. So he's all "And then Tess made yet another accidental bad decision which took two seconds but had a monstrous and terrible impact on the rest of her life" and I'm over here being like

The only Hardy I know I like is Under the Greenwood Tree, and I don't even like the book -- I just like the movie with Keeley Hawes because it is super-adorable and you should watch it because I am not kidding she plays a character named Fancy Day and everyone is in love with her but she only loves the simple farm boy and they have heated words and then KISS (spoilers).

Stupid late Victorians. Why couldn't they all have been fun like Oscar Wilde?...wait, they did what to him? DAMNIT, Victorian England. Get your shit together.

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