Thomas Hardy and the Proper Study of Mankind (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Simon Gatrell
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Work: Literary criticism
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction
- Subjects: Sex or sexuality, Authors or writers, Literature, Social issues, Marriage, Novelists, Aristocracy or aristocrats, Folk art
Among novelists of the late Victorian period, Thomas Hardy enjoys a critical reputation as a serious writer of prime importance. As the fame of his contemporaries in the novel-George Meredith, Arnold Bennett, and Anthony Trollope-has diminished, Hardy’s former stature has held farm and even strengthened. He began as a regionalist, celebrating the folk and folkways of Wessex in south-central England, and his early works reveal an optimistic romanticism. Throughout his career, his settings remained primarily in agrarian Wessex, an area removed from the rapid industrial and commercial...
[The entire page is 2024 words long]
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