Hardy the Writer: Surveys and Assessments

372 Pages·1990·21.456 MB·English

by  F. B. Pinion (auth.)

HARDY THE WRITER
By the same author
*ONE RARE FAIR WOMAN
Thomas Hardy's letters to
Florence Henniker, 1893-1922
(edited with Evelyn Hardy)
*A COMMENTARY ON
THE POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY
*THOMAS HARDY: ART AND THOUGHT
Edited for the New Wessex Edition
*THOMAS HARDY: TWO ON A TOWER
*THE STORIES OF THOMAS HARDY (3 vols)
Edited for the Thomas Hardy Society
THOMAS HARDY AND THE MODERN WORLD
BUDMOUTH ESSAYS ON THOMAS HARDY
THE THOMAS HARDY SOCIETY REVIEW (1975--84)
*A HARDY COMPANION
*A JANE AUSTEN COMPANION
*A BRONTE COMPANION
*A GEORGE ELIOT COMPANION
*A GEORGE ELIOT MISCELLANY
*A D. H. LAWRENCE COMPANION
*A WORDSWORTH COMPANION
*A TENNYSON COMPANION
*AT. S. ELIOT COMPANION
*A WORDSWORTH CHRONOLOGY
*THE COLLECTED SONNETS OF
CHARLES (TENNYSON) TURNER
(edited with M. Pinion)
*A TENNYSON CHRONOLOGY
*A THOMAS HARDY DICTIONARY
*Also published by Palgrave Macmillan
Hardy the Writer
Surveys and Assessments
F. B. PINION
M
MACMILLAN
©F. B. Pinion 1990
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 978-0-333-47362-7
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First published 1990
Published by
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and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by Wessex Typesetters
(Division of The Eastern Press Ltd)
Frome, Somerset
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pinion. F. B. (Francis Bertram), 1908-
Hardy the writer.
1. Fiction in English. Hardy, Thomas, 184~192~
Critical studies
L Title
823'.8
ISBN 978-1-349-38876-9 ISBN 978-0-230-38945-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230389458
To the Wightman family
for their long and dedicated service
to the Thomas Hardy Society

Contents
Preface ix
1 The Ranging Vision 1
2 Hardy and George Eliot 15
3 Psychological Pictorialism 24
4 Two on a Tower 41
5 Mephistophelian and Satanic 56
6 The Uniqueness of The Woodlanders 63
7 Philosophy in Fiction 80
8 Tess of the d'Urbervilles 94
(a) and Desperate Remedies 94
(b) and Clarissa 97
(c) A Pure Woman 102
9 Hebraism and Hellenism 112
10 Hardy and Mrs Henniker 127
11 Jude the Obscure: Origins in Life and Literature 152
12 The Well-Beloved 169
13 Fictional Autobiography 187
14 Hardy's Novel-Endings 211
15 Symbolism 237
16 Hardy as a Thinker 250
17 Literary Allusion and Indebtedness 264
18 The Hero of The Dynasts 282
19 Reflections on Hardy's Poetry 293
20 At the Year's End 307
Supplement 334
(a) Hardy and Heredity 334
(b) Hardy's Titles 336
(c) The Mayor of Casterbridge and Les Miserables 338
Notes 341
Index 352
Vll

Preface
Most of these essays were written in the winter of 1987-8 in order
to create a volume which would present the major aspects of
Hardy's work as a whole, in a progressive, anticipative manner,
with introductory and concluding surveys, and with illustrative
material drawn from his poetry and prose at all appropriate stages.
In this way numerous links have been established between Hardy's
fiction and his poems, some of which receive close critical analysis.
None of his novels is neglected, though special attention is given
to the last four he wrote. Important references are made throughout
to his Life and Collected Letters.
The principal aim has been to reflect Hardy's intentions and
assess his achievements. The essays suggest that his formative
thought, the product of a period of conflict between new scientific
philosophy and humanism on the one hand, and traditional
Christian theology combined with Victorian restraints on the other,
developed when England was not nearly as intellectually provincial
as Matthew Arnold had affirmed. Above all, they illustrate the
extent to which the creative imagination and the style of Hardy
the writer were stimulated and strengthened by literary influences,
particularly from the Bible, a wide range of poetry, and great works
from classical times to his own.
In their first versions, four of the essays have been published
separately: 'The Ranging Vision' in Thomas Hardy After Fifty Years
(ed. Lance StJohn Butler), London and Basingstoke, 1977; 'Hardy
and George Eliot' in the author's A George Eliot Companion, London
and Totowa, New Jersey, 1981; 'Two on a Tower' as the introduction
to the New Wessex Edition, London, 1975; and 'Jude the Obscure:
Origins in Life and Literature' in Thomas Hardy Annual No. 4 (ed.
Norman Page), London and Basingstoke, 1986. Part of the essay
on Mrs Henniker is drawn from my introduction to One Rare Fair
Woman (London and Basingstoke, 1972, now out of print), an
edition of Hardy's letters to her which was prepared in collaboration
with Evelyn Hardy. Certain topics which appeared in my Thomas
Hardy: Art and Thought (London and Basingstoke, now out of print)
have been included in revised and abridged forms. Brief notes on
resemblances between The Mayor of Casterbridge and Les Miserables
ix