"Barbara of the House of Grebe" is the second of ten
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
in
Thomas Hardy's
frame narrative
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
''
A Group of Noble Dames
''A Group of Noble Dames'' is an 1891 collection of short stories written by English author Thomas Hardy. The stories are contained by a frame narrative in which ten members of a club each tell one story about a noble dame in the 17th or 18th cent ...
''. It is told by the old surgeon. The story was published in ''
The Graphic
''The Graphic'' was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Ltd. Thomas's brother Lewis Samuel Thomas was a co-founder. The premature death of the latt ...
'' in 1890 and in book form in 1891.
Plot summary
Lord Uplandtowers, a young man who lives in a mansion in Knollingwood Hall, has decided he wants to marry Barbara, the daughter of his neighbour Sir John Grebe. However she elopes with the beautiful Edmond Willowes, a widow's son from a family of glass painters, and marries him without her parents' consent. A few months later Sir John reconciles with his daughter and her husband. He agrees to support them financially and let them live in Yewsholt Lodge on one condition: Edmond has to go to study in Italy for one year.
During his stay in Italy Edmond has an accident. His face is badly wounded in a fire. When he returns to England he's wearing a mask. In Yewsholt Lodge he takes his mask off before his wife. Barbara is shocked and can't bear to face him. She spends the night alone in the
hot-house. The next morning she finds a farewell letter from Edmond.
Several years later, when Edmond is dead, Lord Uplandtowers convinces Barbara to marry him now. However she doesn't love him, because she's still thinking of her first husband. Every night, while she believes Lord Uplandtowers is asleep, she goes to a closet in her boudoir where she keeps a
statue that a sculptor in
Pisa had made of Edmond. One night Lord Uplandtowers follows her unnoticed and sees her with her arms around the statue. The next day he hires a sculptor to disfigure the statue's head in the same way Edmond's head was disfigured in the fire. He places the statue in their bedroom until Barbara gets an
epileptic seizure
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
and begs him to remove the statue. She finally becomes a loving wife to Lord Uplandtowers.
Time and location
The story takes place around 1780 in
Thomas Hardy's Wessex
Thomas Hardy's Wessex is the fictional literary landscape created by the English author Thomas Hardy as the setting for his major novels, located in the south and southwest of England. Hardy named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Sax ...
, more specifically in "South Wessex" (
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
). "Chene Manor" (in reality Canford Manor) is a house in
Canford Magna
Canford Magna is a village in Dorset, England. The village is situated just south of the River Stour and lies between the towns of Wimborne Minster
Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South Wes ...
. "Yewsholt Lodge" was really called Farrs House. Edmond was from "Shottsford Forum", in reality
Blandford Forum.
Critical reception
A reviewer from ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' called the story "as unnatural as it is disgusting".
said the story "would seem to have been written solely to provide a satisfaction for some morbid emotion".
Adaptation
The sixth episode of the 1973
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
series ''Wessex Tales'' was an adaptation of "Barbara of the House of Grebe".
.... Barbara
*
.... Willowes
*
.... Lord Uplandtowers
*
.... Sir John Grebe
*
.... Lady Grebe