The Genius of Thomas Hardy

by Margaret Drabble (Editor)

Hardy's life, diverse artistic achievements, and milieu, are examined by scholars, critics, and historians

Genres: Nonfiction

191 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

About the author

Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and most recently, the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.

Drabble famously has a long-running feud with her novelist sister, A.S. Byatt. The pair seldom see each other, and each does not read the books of the other.

Reviews

[Yenta Knows · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book for two reasons:

First, I am a big fan of Thomas Hardy‘s novels

Second I’m a big fan of Margaret Drabble. I’ve been consuming her novels since 1971.

And so I asked for this book via inter-library loan, and it travelled to me from the Talbot County Library system, about 100 miles away. Thank you, MCPL.

A few of the new-to-me tidbits.

The Hardy Society in Japan was the first society to be formed. This seems almost incredible to me. Really, the Japanese formed a society before his own countrymen in Great Britain did?

Thomas Hardy, the man, was difficult to work for and a miser. His servants didn’t particularly care for him. The neighborhood children called him “mean Mr Hardy“.

But the best part of the book was the blurry black-and-white photographs of the English peasants featured in Hardy’s novels. We see them weaving hurdles. Resting briefly after a morning in the hay fields. Driving open wagons drawn by heavy-maned draft horses.

It looks like a hard life. Lots of physical labor to strain your back, lots of manual labor that leaves cuts on your hands. Not too much sanitation. A single set of (soiled, well worn) clothes.

A vanished world, but for their chronicler.

[Eleni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The element of this book that I found new for me was how much interest the works of Thomas Hardy for Japan readers. They created the first Thomas Hardy Society in the world.