Synopsis
Internationally renowned as the author of Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, Wessex Poems and Other Verses, and Winter Words, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) nonetheless remains an elusive and enigmatic figure. His own diligent efforts to guard his privacy—making bonfires of his papers, ghost-writing his own biography to be published after his death—have obscured many aspects of the author’s personal life. This book, the first major biography of Hardy in decades, draws on new and extensive archival research to present a more complex picture of Hardy than has been possible to date.
Author Ralph Pite investigates the validity of long-accepted views of the author: Was his early life devoted to his preparation for becoming a writer? Did his first wife, Emma, trick him into an unwanted marriage? Was his poetry far dearer to his heart than the novels? And was Florence, his second wife, as conflicted and passionate as caricatures have suggested? Pite examines the relationships and contexts that shaped Hardy most—the women in his life, his friends and mentors, social and family pressures, career structures of his day, the Devonshire landscape—and offers new insight into the man who, until now, was hidden behind an opaque public image he helped to create.
Robert Kelly - Library Journal
Thomas Hardy (1840 1928), a shy country boy from Dorchester, England, became a world-famous writer of novels, short stories, and poetry. His first commercial success was Far from the Madding Crowd, which coincided with his marriage to Emma Gifford. The marriage proved to be tortuous to both parties, but Hardy's writing ventures remained successful until the negative reception of Jude the Obscureand its handling of social and sexual mores and behaviors. From that point on, Hardy turned primarily to writing poetry, though he did pen his biography under an assumed name, glossing over what he did not want fully known. After Emma's death in 1912, he married Florence Dugdale, but his infatuations with women continued. Pite (English, Cardiff Univ.; Hardy's Geography: Wessex and the Regional Novel) draws on new archival research to integrate Hardy's personal life, including his marriages and the changing social scene, with his novels and poetry. Much has been written of Hardy, most influentially by Michael Millgate. But Pite's treatment, while not ignoring the writer's flaws, offers a more admirable portrait. Recommended for public and academic libraries.