How Effective is Thomas Hardy's Short Story "Tony Kytes the Arch Deceiver"
In the 19th century the genre of the short story expanded greatly in its popularity. One of the authors who grew in his skill as a writer at the same time as the genre was Thomas Hardy. I will be considering a short story named "Tony Kytes The Arch Deceiver". The story follows the exploits of a handsome man in rural England. I will analyse how humour is generated, the importance in developing good characterisation and I will take a look at the social attitudes of women in the 19th century.
The genre of the story gained popularity during the 19th century. This increased popularity can be attributed to a series of differing factors. Firstly it should be taken into account that there was an increase in literacy rates across England meaning there was an increased audience who wanted to read books.
"Thomas Hardy," oil on panel, by the Scottish pain...
TONY GIGOT
TonyAs a result of this there was a lot of demand for literature but most authors take a long time to write novels. Consequently the publishers and authors realised that there was more money to be made in shorter stories, which were easier to write.
Probably the most significant factor was the progression in technology. The technology became more sophisticated which meant that the pressers could publish many copies of a particular story relatively swiftly; therefore more people had access to books and journals. The authors noticed that magazines were becoming increasingly popular and widely read so they wrote novels as standalone chapters which were part of a larger novel but they could also be read independently. Since magazines were widely read this meant that these serial became increasingly popular and the readers anticipated the release of the next in the series, their popularity is similar...