Thomas Hardy

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In this seminal biography of the enigmatic novelist and poet Thomas Hardy ("Tess of the d'Urbervilles"), Whitbread Award winner Tomalin skillfully identifies the inner demons and the outer mores that drove Hardy and presents a rich and complex portrait of one of the greatest figures in English literature.

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Publisher’s Weekly (12/04/2006)
Respected British biographer Tomalin (whoseSamuel Pepys was 2002's Whitbread Book of the Year) sticks to the substantiated facts of Hardy's life (1840-1928) in her finely honed biography, dismissing the speculative claims of other Hardy scholars as she charts the great British novelist and poet's rise from humble rural origins to bestselling author and literary eminence. Tomalin captures the awkwardness of Hardy's conduct in high society following his literary success, brilliantly highlighting the snobbishly mocking diary entries of upper-class observers. At the heart of Tomalin's narrative is a gripping account of Hardy's long, troubled marriage to Emma Gifford in which Tomalin carefully shows how a heady courtship waned into disappointment and bitterness on both sides. Tomalin damns neither party, evoking Emma's eccentricities and frustrations along with Hardy's infatuations with other women. She also treats, with great sensitivity and insight, Hardy's poetic outpourings after Emma's death, in which he imaginatively returned to an image of her as his beloved muse. "The wounds inflicted by life never quite healed over in Hardy," writes Tomalin, although she avows she cannot completely fathom the underlying cause of his acute sensitivity to humiliation. A feat of distillation and mature judgment, Tomalin's biography artfully presents Hardy in his intimate and social world, offering succinct and insightful readings of his work along the way. Illus., map.(Jan. 15)

Library Journal (11/15/2006)
Praising Thomas Hardy's poetry, fellow poet Ezra Pound called it the harvest of having written 20 novels first. Given the prominence of Hardy's novels, it is easy to forget that he is also one of the finest modern English poets. In Tomalin's (Jane Austen: A Life ) new biography of Hardy, she gives full treatment to the novels but is especially interested in how Hardy's poetry reflects the events of his life and how small incidents and emotions recollected over time come back to inform the moments of his poetry. She is especially impressed with the uncompromising nature of his "Poems 1912-13," the writing of which was stimulated by the sudden death of his first wife. Tomalin's treatment throughout is well informed but popular in focus; she has no political or theoretical ax to grind. Her book joins the recent, more exhaustive, and scholarly Hardy biographies by Paul Turner, Michael Millgate, and Martin Seymour-Smith. Tomalin's fluently written work is highly recommended, especially for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert,LJ 9/15/06; a new selection of Hardy's love poems, selected by Tomalin, is are also published by Penguin.-Ed.]-T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah

ISBN: 1594201188 | EAN: 9781594201189
Publisher: Penguin Press  | Publication Date: February, 2007

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