The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–1891

The first volume (1928) of a fascinating account of Hardy's life, compiled by him in collaboration with his second wife.

Florence Emily Hardy (Author)

9781108033831, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 September 2011

374 pages, 15 b/w illus.
21.6 x 21.6 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

The great English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) worked with his second wife, Florence, on this account of his life. It was published under her name, in two separate volumes, after his death. Its origins are as fascinating as the man himself: written in the third person, it was compiled from Hardy's selections from his diaries, notebooks and letters, typed up by Florence and further edited by her after he died. The work provides an invaluable, if idiosyncratic, record of Hardy's life and complex, contradictory character. This is the first volume, published in 1928 and covering the period 1840–91, including Hardy's childhood in Dorset, the publication of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), his marriage in 1874 to Emma Gifford and the building of Max Gate, their home near Dorchester.

Prefatory note
Part I. Early Life and Architecture: 1. Birth and boyhood, 1840–55
2. Student and architect, 1856–62
3. Work in London, 1862–7
4. Between architecture and literature, 1867–70
5. St. Juliot, 1870
Part II. Novels - to Illness: 6. First three books, 1870–3
7. Far from the Madding Crowd, marriage, and another novel, 1873–16
8. Holland, the Rhine, and Sturminster Newton, 1876–8
9. Life and literature in a London suburb, 1878–80
10. London, Normandy, and Cambridge, 1879–80
Part III. Illness, Novels, and Italy: 11. A difficult period
and a change, 1880–1
12. Wimborne and Two on a Tower, 1882–3
13. The country town, 1883–5
14. Max Gate and The Woodlanders, 1885–7
15. Italian journey, 1887
Part IV. Between Town and Country: 16. London friends, Paris, and short stories, 1887–8
17. More town friends and a novel's dismemberment, 1888–9
18. Observations on people and things, 1890
19. The novel Tess restored and published, 1891.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]