Author Spotlight: Thomas Hardy

Background Thomas Hardy was an English author and poet in the Victorian Era. He was born June 2, 1840, in Dorset, a rural region of southwestern England that became the focus of his fiction. Hardy was highly critical of Victorian societal rules and moral standings. He shows his aversion of the conventional societal ideals of modesty and desire through his novels. Many of his stories show his characters struggling through social circumstances and their desires. At the same time, a large number of his poems referred to his first wife (the love of his life) Emma Gifford. Their separation, divorce and her death had a traumatic impact on him; many say that he never got over her. Upon his death, he asked for his heart to be buried in Stinsford, with her. If that doesn't tell you something, then I don't know what will. Religious Perspective Hardy uses religious metaphors throughout his novels. In Tess of the D'Ubervilles (TDU, 1891), Hardy writes a rant criticising the Church. Here Tess reprimands the Churches rules of unbaptised children not being able to be buried on holy ground and going to hell. Hardy's religious beliefs are still uncertain, but we know that he grew up in an Anglican household. However, as he got older, he began to question his upbringing and searched for answers in his peers; Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein and J. M. E. McTaggart. Despite challenging his relationship and view of the Christian God, his childhood faith shone through and was present in his works. Publishers Due to the scandalous nature of TDU it was first published as serial rights in the English newspaper, The Graphic. It appeared censored in weekly instalments between July and November 1891. At the same time, this story was published in Harper's Magazine in America in the Sydney Mail in Australia. It was censored due to the controversial content of sexual scenes and midnight baptisms. Certain scenes were edited to appear less provocative, for example; Angel put the ladies in a wheelbarrow instead of intimately carrying them across the flooded road. The Graphic published the full uncut novel as a book in 1892. Audience reception The reception Hardy received from his controversial novels, in particular, TDU and Jude the Obscure (1895) led him to decide he would prefer to work on poems. He never wrote another book. But it is clear to see that his ideas were ahead of their time. My next Thomas Hardy novel will be Far from the Maddening Crowd, and I cannot wait.