Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)has been chronicled in several biographies. The recent Claire Tomalin and the classic by Michael Millgate on Hardy are both superb. In this new work by British scholar Ralph Pite our understanding of this reticent, complex, enigmatic, orderly and romantic man is explored in depth. Hardy was born in Dorchester to lower middle class parents. He became an architect and did not go to university. Hary was an autodidatic man who enjoyed studying Latin, Greek and the Church Fathers. He became an agnostic who,nevertheless, enjoyed rural church music, biblical study and even considered going into the ministry. He is most noted for his great Wessex novels among which are such classics as "Far From the Madding Crowd", "Tess of the D'Urbervilles."; "The Mayor of Casterbridge."; "The Return of the Native." "The Woodlanders," "Jude the Obscure."Two on a Tower," "The Laodicean," "A Pair of Blue Eyes," "The Hand of Ethelberta," and others including several short story collections. Hardy was a renowned poet whose long epic poem "The Dynasts" concerns the conflict with Napoleon. He turned to poetry after the publication of "Jude the Obscure" which was heavily criticised for its sexual honesty and opposition to church and university. What makes Pitt's book stand out is its careful examination of Hardy's emotional life. He had a long and miserable first marriage to Emma. Hardy later married his secretary Florence. He had platonic crushes on several society and literary ladies such as his good friend Francis Henniker. Hardy was something of a recluse who hated to be touched. He and Emma had no children and spent most of the year in their gloomy home "Max End" located near Dorchester. Hardy did not wear his heart on his sleeve; was harsh with servants and enjoyed solitude devoted to his writing. Thomas Hardy was a good man despite his faults. He hated cruelty to animals, supported liberal causes and loved his family. The loss of a relative in World War I and that horrific event in the annals of humanity were searing to his sensitive soul. Thomas Hardy was a gifted novelist and Pite has served his subject well.

Ralph Pite has written a thoughtful account of the influences, life and times of Thomas Hardy. Thomas Hardy is an author whom many of us have studied as part of English literature either formally, or as we read through the classics. He died less than 100 years ago, and yet we know very little about the man behind the author. What we do know creates a sense of a series of slightly out of focus images which are, sometimes, contradictory. Seeking to make sense of this is difficult and it can detract from enjoying Hardy's prose and poetry. Ralph Pite does not have all of the answers. What he does is to present, in sharper focus, the relationships that were important either in Hardy's life or as potential influences on his writing. Pite does this in elegant prose: as accessible to the more casual interested reader as it will be to the more academically inclined student of Hardy. Knowing Hardy will never be easy: he always is present in the shadows. But some of the insights in Pite's book sometimes let the sun shine through more brightly. And, quickly, before the shadows shift again I could sense the man who might have been behind the author. Highly recommended to those who seek to better understand Thomas Hardy. Jennifer Cameron-Smith