Thomas Hardy

Claire Tomalin turns her attention to Thomas Hardy, the writer whose novels and poems hold a central place in English literature. Hardy is most often remembered for the fictional region of Wessex, the rural setting of stories such as Far from the Madding Crowd. This biography argues that his more lasting contribution lies in the later novels Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, which follow the hardships of the poor and of women while criticising the privileged classes. The puzzle at the centre of the book is that Hardy moved comfortably among the upper classes and kept to their social codes in his own conduct. Tomalin asks whether his fiction gave voice to feelings he could not express among his peers, or whether he simply knew that shocking material would attract readers.

Born in Dorset in 1840, Hardy grew up in modest circumstances. At sixteen he left for London, where he faced many rejections before establishing himself as a published writer. His mother warned him never to marry, yet in 1874 he wed Emma Lavinia Gifford. Although he fell in love easily, he remained faithful to her until her death in 1912. Hardy often mixed in London society, but few people felt they knew him well. Tomalin sets out to reveal that private self.

Hardy's work challenged sexual and religious conventions more boldly than most of his contemporaries. His gentle manners sometimes led people to underestimate him or pity him, but they did not stop him from engaging with time, memory, loss, love, fear, grief, anger, uncertainty and death. The small domestic dramas of his life, including family quarrels, rivalries and periods of despair, gave his writing much of its concrete detail. Tomalin examines the inner conflicts and social expectations that shaped him, offering a full portrait of one of the central figures in English literature.