{"product_id":"2026200006575-secondhand-the-hand-of-ethelberta-a-comedy-in-chapters","title":"The Hand Of Ethelberta: A Comedy In Chapters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA witty and unconventional Victorian novel, The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters chronicles the bold social ascent of Ethelberta Petherwin, a young widow of humble origins who reinvents herself as a fashionable poet and storyteller in London society. Hardy presents a sharp-eyed satire of class pretension and Victorian marriage markets, as Ethelberta juggles multiple suitors while desperately concealing her working-class family from the elite world she has infiltrated. The novel illustrates Hardy's keen comic sensibility, trading the rural Wessex landscapes of his more celebrated works for the drawing rooms and social theatrics of the upper classes. With irony and wit, it uncovers the precarious tightrope walked by ambitious women in an era when respectability was both a weapon and a cage. Readers who appreciate Victorian social comedy in the tradition of Trollope or Meredith will find Ethelberta a remarkably modern and resourceful heroine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48820245233883,"sku":"2026200006575-SECONDHAND","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/83fb122a-acaf-440f-97ca-66381485a2d9.png?v=1780055548","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200006575-secondhand-the-hand-of-ethelberta-a-comedy-in-chapters","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}