- Paperback: 544 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New Ed edition (4 May 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330481878
- ISBN-13: 978-0330481878
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 19.3 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 423,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Daily Telegraph
'Good value.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Spectator
"Ralph Pite's revealing biography of Thomas Hardy."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I must confess at the outset that I just love Hardy's novels and this is the second biography of Hardy I have read (firstly reading Claire Tomalin's work published at the same time as this one). I really enjoyed Pite's insight into the life of Hardy, let's face it, anyone who can start a biog of a literary great like Hardy with a quote from Morrissey can't be doing too much wrong! Pite's work is deeply entrenched in Hardy's work, specially his poetry, and close readings of a number of his poems are used to open up and explore the emotional inner life of Hardy. He is a complex and challenging character, with an almost perverse desire to be loved and respected, yet at the same time railing against the conventions of the society he lived in. Whilst Hardy's best works have a darkness at the heart of them, he is still able to make valuable insights into the human condition. Pite explores at depth the dissatisfaction of his marriage to Emma Gifford, and she comes across as a more rounded individual in this book compared to Tomalin's for me. She, like some of Hardy's more challenging characters is a difficult person to empathise with, let alone like, but Pite does not seek to lay blame with either Hardy or Gifford solely, instead painting a clear portrait of a marriage that breaks down to the detriment of both parties. It is in the quote from Morrissey that Pite is able to simply sum up the Hardy he presents: "It takes guts to be gentle and kind", and it is a gentle and kind Hardy, at least to the wonderful and memorable characters he creates that Pite lays before us. Never judging, but almost like a quiet shadow in the corner of the room, observing and understanding. This is a first rate literary biography which has enough drive and interest to read like a great Victorian novel in itself. Most enjoyable.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Thomas Hardy was a private man who created his own literary world in the Wessex Novels
13 Aug 2007
Format:Paperback
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)has been chronicled in several biographies. The recent Claire Tomalin and the classic by Michael Millgate on Hardy are both superb. In this new work by British scholar Ralph Pite our understanding of this reticent, complex, enigmatic, orderly and romantic man is explored in depth.
Hardy was born in Dorchester to lower middle class parents. He became an architect and did not go to university. Hary was an autodidatic man who enjoyed studying Latin, Greek and the Church Fathers. He became an agnostic who,nevertheless, enjoyed rural church music, biblical study and
even considered going into the ministry.
He is most noted for his great Wessex novels among which are such classics as "Far From the Madding Crowd", "Tess of the D'Urbervilles."; "The Mayor of Casterbridge."; "The Return of the Native."
"The Woodlanders," "Jude the Obscure."Two on a Tower," "The Laodicean,"
"A Pair of Blue Eyes," "The Hand of Ethelberta," and others including several short story collections. Hardy was a renowned poet whose long epic poem "The Dynasts" concerns the conflict with Napoleon. He turned to poetry after the publication of "Jude the Obscure" which was heavily criticised for its sexual honesty and opposition to church and university.
What makes Pitt's book stand out is its careful examination of Hardy's emotional life. He had a long and miserable first marriage to Emma. Hardy later married his secretary Florence. He had platonic crushes on several society and literary ladies such as his good friend Francis Henniker.
Hardy was something of a recluse who hated to be touched. He and Emma had no children and spent most of the year in their gloomy home "Max End" located near Dorchester. Hardy did not wear his heart on his sleeve; was harsh with servants and enjoyed solitude devoted to his writing.
Thomas Hardy was a good man despite his faults. He hated cruelty to animals, supported liberal causes and loved his family. The loss of a relative in World War I and that horrific event in the annals of humanity were searing to his sensitive soul.
Thomas Hardy was a gifted novelist and Pite has served his subject well.
Hardy was born in Dorchester to lower middle class parents. He became an architect and did not go to university. Hary was an autodidatic man who enjoyed studying Latin, Greek and the Church Fathers. He became an agnostic who,nevertheless, enjoyed rural church music, biblical study and
even considered going into the ministry.
He is most noted for his great Wessex novels among which are such classics as "Far From the Madding Crowd", "Tess of the D'Urbervilles."; "The Mayor of Casterbridge."; "The Return of the Native."
"The Woodlanders," "Jude the Obscure."Two on a Tower," "The Laodicean,"
"A Pair of Blue Eyes," "The Hand of Ethelberta," and others including several short story collections. Hardy was a renowned poet whose long epic poem "The Dynasts" concerns the conflict with Napoleon. He turned to poetry after the publication of "Jude the Obscure" which was heavily criticised for its sexual honesty and opposition to church and university.
What makes Pitt's book stand out is its careful examination of Hardy's emotional life. He had a long and miserable first marriage to Emma. Hardy later married his secretary Florence. He had platonic crushes on several society and literary ladies such as his good friend Francis Henniker.
Hardy was something of a recluse who hated to be touched. He and Emma had no children and spent most of the year in their gloomy home "Max End" located near Dorchester. Hardy did not wear his heart on his sleeve; was harsh with servants and enjoyed solitude devoted to his writing.
Thomas Hardy was a good man despite his faults. He hated cruelty to animals, supported liberal causes and loved his family. The loss of a relative in World War I and that horrific event in the annals of humanity were searing to his sensitive soul.
Thomas Hardy was a gifted novelist and Pite has served his subject well.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
'It's time to take him at his word - and to doubt his every word'
3 Mar 2007
Format:Hardcover
Ralph Pite has written a thoughtful account of the influences, life and times of Thomas Hardy.
Thomas Hardy is an author whom many of us have studied as part of English literature either formally, or as we read through the classics. He died less than 100 years ago, and yet we know very little about the man behind the author. What we do know creates a sense of a series of slightly out of focus images which are, sometimes, contradictory. Seeking to make sense of this is difficult and it can detract from enjoying Hardy's prose and poetry.
Ralph Pite does not have all of the answers. What he does is to present, in sharper focus, the relationships that were important either in Hardy's life or as potential influences on his writing. Pite does this in elegant prose: as accessible to the more casual interested reader as it will be to the more academically inclined student of Hardy.
Knowing Hardy will never be easy: he always is present in the shadows. But some of the insights in Pite's book sometimes let the sun shine through more brightly. And, quickly, before the shadows shift again I could sense the man who might have been behind the author.
Highly recommended to those who seek to better understand Thomas Hardy.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Thomas Hardy is an author whom many of us have studied as part of English literature either formally, or as we read through the classics. He died less than 100 years ago, and yet we know very little about the man behind the author. What we do know creates a sense of a series of slightly out of focus images which are, sometimes, contradictory. Seeking to make sense of this is difficult and it can detract from enjoying Hardy's prose and poetry.
Ralph Pite does not have all of the answers. What he does is to present, in sharper focus, the relationships that were important either in Hardy's life or as potential influences on his writing. Pite does this in elegant prose: as accessible to the more casual interested reader as it will be to the more academically inclined student of Hardy.
Knowing Hardy will never be easy: he always is present in the shadows. But some of the insights in Pite's book sometimes let the sun shine through more brightly. And, quickly, before the shadows shift again I could sense the man who might have been behind the author.
Highly recommended to those who seek to better understand Thomas Hardy.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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