Thomas Hardy

by Peter Widdowson

Widely popular throughout the world, Hardy still seems to speak to us, in fiction and in poetry, as our contemporary. In this new edition of his popular study, Peter Widdowson identifies the elements in his work which enable Hardy to be read in this the focus on unstable class and sexual
relations in a society undergoing rapid change; the highly-charged and contradictory representations of women at the heart of this dangerously 'metamorphic' social process; the self-reflexive artifice of the writing itself as an aspect of Hardy's 'satiric' worldview; his ironic humanism in the 'new
Dark Age' of the modern world. Drawing on contemporary approaches to literary study in an accessible way, the author shows where this radical and destabilizing Hardy is to be located in the texts; and similarly seeks to recast our conception of Hardy the Poet by showing how preconceived and
selective it is. For this edition, Professor Widdowson has updated the Select Bibliography and has also included a 'Postscript'

113 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Eleni · Rating 2 out of 5]

best part was an early section on how Hardy has been received over the past century - I wish this had been bulked up more as the novel analysis wasn't strong.