Thomas Hardy: The World of His NovelsA study of the fictious world in Hardy’s novels in relation to real places and Hardy’s real-life experiences. Thomas Hardy’s Wessex is one of the great literary evocations of place, populated with colourful and dramatic characters. As lovers of his novels and poetry know, this ‘partly real, partly dream-country’ was firmly rooted in the Dorset into which he had been born. J. B. Bullen explores the relationship between reality and the dream, identifying the places and the settings for Hardy’s writing, and showing how and why he shaped them to serve the needs of his characters and plots. The locations may be natural or man-made, but they are rarely fantastic or imaginary. A few have been destroyed and some moved from their original site, but all of them actually existed, and we can still trace most of them on the ground today. Thomas Hardy: The World of his Novels is essential reading for students of literature and for all Hardy enthusiasts who want to gain new insights into his work. Praise for Thomas Hardy “Take pleasure in a book like this one, which skillfully interweaves its evocative accounts of Hardy’s life, of Dorset and Cornwall places, and of the stories unfolded from places in six of his novels (and a few poems) so that we vividly re-experience them. . . . The pleasures of this book (and they are real) come from its ability to re-enchant us in a way that is not un-Hardy-like, to draw us again into the intensely seen, heard, and felt world of the novels and poems. It set me to re-reading Hardy, with different eyes.” —Review 19 |
Common terms and phrases
Alec ancient Angel appearance architectural barn Bathsheba beauty become Bockhampton Bough Boveridge building century characters Chaseborough Christminster church Clare Clym colour contrast cottage couple create d'Urbervilles dark Dorchester Dorset Earl of Wessex Egdon Heath Elizabeth-Jane Emma emotional Eustacia Farfrae farm farmhouse Fawley Felice Charmond figure Fitzpiers Flintcomb-Ash Fordington garden Giles Grace Hardy’s Henchard Higher Bockhampton hill human Ilchester J. M. W. Turner journey Jude the Obscure Jude’s landscape light Little Hintock living London look Lucetta Madding Crowd Marlott marriage Marygreen Mayor of Casterbridge Melbury Bubb Melbury Sampford Melchester Millgate modern narrative nature night novel Oxford painting passed poem Puddletown Puddletown Heath Rainbarrow Return road Roman says Hardy scene sexual Shaston spot St Juliot stands story Street suggests Tess Tess’s Thomas Hardy town trees Troy Turner valley village walk wall Weatherbury Wessex window Winterborne woman Woodlanders woods writing Yeobright