Evanston: Thomas Hardy
Evanston: Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy emerged from his biography unscathed. I’m glad. My admiration for his writing won’t have to be compromised by dislike of the man.
Hardy was the son of a laborer who became the only writer in EngIish who is both a great novelist and a great poet.
Claire Tomalin in her fine biography of Hardy which I just finished, states that Hardy became a great poet after the death of Emma, his first wife, in 1912. I don’t believe that is true; but Hardy did write some of his best poetry after that date and some of it about their early love.
He loved Emma more in reminiscence than he had for the last decade of her life, when, although they continued to live under the same roof--she literally because she moved to rooms in the attic--they did not get along. I think that often when people look back at an early love, they are missing themselves, the person they then were, as much as the loved one.
Two years later, Hardy, then 73, remarried, this time to a woman, Florence, who was 38 years younger than he. She was an admirer who is usually referred to as his secretary. How much more she may have been while Emma was alive is open to speculation.
I was under the impression that Hardy stopped writing fiction because of the criticism of his final novel, JUDE THE OBSCURE. An earlier novel, TESS OF THE D’UBERVILLES, also created a sensation. Among those who sneered at TESS was Henry James, whom I generally find unreadable. Ms. Tomalin suggests that the controversies boosted sales to the point that Hardy, who preferred writing poetry, became rich enough to do so full time.
Hardy’s major novels and complete poems are, like my foul weather gear, 9,000 miles away on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA. The disadvantages of a divided life. I’d like to reread them now.
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Carol is in Hilton Head, South Carolina, for an annual weekend with her sister and friends. It is very quiet. Too quiet. Waiting for the cicadas.
Friday, May 18, 2007