Thomas Hardy

'...a beautiful wrought study that belongs in every good library'. Publishers' Weekly '...remains a major contribution to Hardy studies' - Charles Osborne, Sunday Telegraph Originally published in 1971 and now for the first time reprinted, Thomas Hardy: His Career as a Novelist has long been recognized as a major - and exceptionally well-written - work of Hardy criticism that also set new standards for Hardy scholarship. A recent survey refers to it as 'one of the most permanently useful' of Hardy studies, characterized by an 'admirably clear, unpretentious style'. Although the central chapters are predominantly critical, offering independent readings of each of the novels (including those customarily considered 'minor'), those readings are developed within the context of available knowledge of Hardy's personal and intellectual backgrounds, his friendships and family relationships, and his evolution as a professional writer. Extensive use is made of Hardy's own manuscripts, notebooks, nd letters and of the correspondence and reminiscences of those who knew him, and in a new preface Michael Millgate speaks of having sought to resolve 'the standard work/life dichotomy' by pursuing 'the unitary conception of a career'.

Autorentext

MICHAEL MILLGATE

Zusammenfassung
This work of Hardy criticism has been revised and makes use of Hardy's own manuscripts, notebooks and letters, and of the correspondence and reminiscences of those who knew him. The author seeks to resolve the "work/life dichotomy" by pursuing the "unitary conception of a career".

Inhalt
Preface to 1994 Reissue - Preface - PRELUDE - The Poor Man and the Lady - PART 1: APPRENTICESHIP - Desperate Remedies - 'Ce Saxon autodidacte': A Matter of Education - Under the Greenwood Tree - Bockhampton and St Juliot: The Exploitation of Autobiography - A Pair of Blue Eyes - PART 2: ACHIEVEMENT - Far from the Madding Crowd - Puddletown into Weatherbury: The Genesis of Wessex - The Hand of Ethelberta - On Native Grounds: Kegan Paul and William Barnes - The Return of the Native - PART 3: RECESSION - The Trumpet-Major - The Uses of a Regional Past - A Laodicean - Hardy's Laodiceanism: Politics and Ideas - Two on a Tower - PART 4: RENEWAL - Max Gate - 'The Dorsetshire Labourer' - The Mayor of Casterbridge - The Evolution of Wessex - The Woodlanders - PART 5: FULFILMENT - Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Candour in English Fiction - The Well-Beloved - Hardy and the Theatre - Jude the Obscure - AFTERWORD - The End of Prose - Notes - Index