A Pair of Blue Eyes

By Thomas Hardy, 1873

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A Pair of Blue Eyes

A Pair of Blue Eyes Summary

A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy is a Victorian novel that delves into themes of love, societal expectations, and personal growth. The story follows Elfride Swancourt, a young woman torn between two suitors: the ambitious but socially inferior Stephen Smith, and the older, more established Henry Knight. As Elfride navigates her emotions and the rigid social structures of her time, Hardy explores the complexities of human relationships and the constraints imposed by society.

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A Pair of Blue Eyes Excerpt

Short Summary: Elfride Swancourt, a young woman in Victorian England, becomes entangled in a love triangle with two very different men: Stephen Smith, an ambitious architect of lower social standing, and Henry Knight, an older, respectable literary man. As she grapples with her feelings and societal expectations, Elfride's choices lead to unforeseen consequences, highlighting the tensions between love, class, and duty.

"Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface. Personally, she was the combination of very interesting particulars, whose rarity lay in the combination itself rather than in the individual elements combined. One point in her, however, you did notice: that was her eyes. In them was seen a sublimation of all of her; it was not necessary to look further: there she lived. These eyes were blue; blue as autumn distance—blue as the blue we see between the retreating mouldings of hills and woody slopes on a sunny September morning. A misty and shady blue, that had no beginning or surface, and was looked INTO rather than AT. As to her presence, it was not powerful; it was weak. Some women can make their personality pervade the atmosphere of a whole banqueting hall; Elfride's was no more pervasive than that of a kitten. The point in Elfride Swancourt's life at which a deeper current may be said to have permanently set in, was one winter afternoon when she found herself standing, in the character of hostess, face to face with a man she had never seen before—moreover, looking at him with a Miranda-like curiosity and interest that she had never yet bestowed on a mortal."