The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892–1928

The second volume (1930) of a fascinating account of Hardy's life, compiled by him in collaboration with his second wife.

Florence Emily Hardy (Author)

9781108033824, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 September 2011

330 pages, 12 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.42 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 second volume, published in 1930 and covering the period 1892–1928. It includes the publication of Jude the Obscure (1895) and its hostile reception, Hardy's return to writing poetry, the creation of his epic drama The Dynasts (1908), the death of Emma, his first wife, Hardy's response to World War I, and his marriage to Florence Dugdale.

Part I. Tess, Jude, and the End of Prose: 1. The reception of the book, 1892
2. Visits and intermittent writing, 1893
3. Another novel finished, mutilated, and restored, 1894–5
4. More on Jude, and issue of The Well-Beloved, 1896–7
Part II. Verse, to the End of The Dynasts: 5. Collecting old poems and making new, 1897–8
6. Wessex Poems and others, 1899–1900
7. Poems of the Past and Present, and others, 1901–3
8. Part first of The Dynasts, 1904–5
9. The remainder of The Dynasts, 1906–8
Part III. Time's Laughingstocks, Satires of Circumstance, and Moments of Vision: 10. Deaths of Swinburne and Meredith, 1908–9
11. The freedom of the borough, 1910
12. Bereavement, 1911–12
13. Revisitings, second marriage, and war writings, 1913–14
14. War efforts, deaths of relatives, and Moments of Vision, 1915–17
Part IV. Life's Decline: 15. Reflections on poetry, 1918
16. Poetical questions: and Mellstock club-room, 1918–19
17. The Dynasts at Oxford
hon. degree
a deputation
a controversy, 1920
18. Some farewells, 1921–5
19. The last scene
Appendix
Index.

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