Thomas Hardy’s fiction is examined in this book in the context of the seismic legal reforms of the nineteenth century as well as legal discourse in the literature of the era. The book examines the ...ways in which Hardy’s role as a magistrate and his interest in the law impacted fundamentally on his prose fiction. It demonstrates that throughout his prose fiction Hardy engages with contentious legal issues that were debated by legal professionals and literary figures of his day, and argues that Hardy used fiction as a forum to question the extent to which legal reform improved the lives of women and the working classes.
A systematic exploration of Thomas Hardy's imaginative assimilation of particular Victorian sciences, this study draws on and swells the widening current of scholarly attention now being paid to the ...cultural meanings compacted and released by the nascent 'sciences of man' in the nineteenth century. Andrew Radford here situates Hardy's fiction and poetry in a context of the new sciences of humankind that evolved during the Victorian age to accommodate an immense range of literal and figurative 'excavations' then taking place. Combining literary close readings with broad historical analyses, he explores Hardy's artistic response to geological, archaeological and anthropological findings. In particular, he analyzes Hardy's lifelong fascination with the doctrine of 'survivals,' a term coined by E.B. Tylor in Primitive Culture (1871) to denote customs, beliefs and practices persisting in isolation from their original cultural context. Radford reveals how Hardy's subtle reworking of Tylor's doctrine offers a valuable insight into the inter-penetration of science and literature during this period. An important aspect of Radford's research focuses on lesser known periodical literature that grew out of a British amateur antiquarian tradition of the nineteenth century. His readings of Hardy's literary notebooks disclose the degree to which Hardy's own considerable scientific knowledge was shaped by the middlebrow periodical press. Thus Thomas Hardy and the Survivals of Time raises questions not only about the reception of scientific ideas but also the creation of nonspecialist forms of scientific discourse. This book represents a genuinely new perspective for Hardy studies.
Contents: General editors' preface; Introduction; Opening the fan of time; Paganism revived?; Stories of today; The unmanned fertility figure; Killing the God; A bizarre farewell to fiction?; Bibliography; Index.
This study seeks to develop a new context for reading later Victorian fiction, specifically the work of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Mary Ward and Rider Haggard. With Eliot and her successors the ...Victorian novel acquired greater cultural centrality, just as the authority of the scriptures and of traditional religious teaching seemed to be declining. The book considers whether serious, allegedly secular novelists supplanted the Bible or whether they anticipated some of the insights of contemporary theologians and writers of fiction by reimagining and reformulating rather than abandoning essentially religious themes and insights. The history of Bible reading is reviewed to stress the relatively late insistence on biblical literalism which eventually precipitated loss of confidence in the Bible in the light of modern knowledge. The novelists discussed, all of Anglican nurture though unconventional in different ways, are shown to have continued older traditions of reading the Bible for underlying moral and religious significance rather than just the literal meaning. The novels considered demonstrate new ways of imagining biblical concerns such as the sublime, the messianic and pilgrimage. The conclusion suggests the novelists discussed as pioneers of the pot-secular and proposes connections between their work and the subsequent emphasis on religious experience rather than religious dogma.
Because Thomas Hardy's poetry and fiction are so closely associated with Wessex, it is easy to forget that he was, in his own words, half a Londoner, moving between country and capital throughout his ...life. This self-division, Mark Ford says, can be traced not only in works explicitly set in London but in his most regionally circumscribed novels.
CHAIRMAN’S NOTES FINCHAM, TONY
Thomas Hardy journal,
10/2019, Letnik:
35
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The North Dorchester walk was part of our cooperation with STAND, the local group in rebellion at the proposed extinction of Hardy's Casterbridge by the construction of what is euphemistically ...described as a 'garden village' of over 3,000 houses across the water meadows to the north of the town. Evidence has also been given by Alistair Chisholm on behalf of the THS at the recent Public Inquiries into the so-called Strawberry Fields development and Woodsford Quarry expansion, which would devastate the environs of Wolfeton House and Woodsford Castle, respectively. The asking price for this Grade 2· listed building reflects the fact that little has changed in the 130 years since Hardy visited the house - the external structure appears magnificent viewed from across the Frome, but internally it remains a 'mouldy old habitation' in need of much expensive restoration: any well-heeled takers within the THS membership?
Thomas Hardy reappraised Wilson, Keith
Thomas Hardy reappraised,
2006, 20060608, 2006, 2014, 2006-01-01, 2006-12-15
eBook
InThomas Hardy Reappraised, editor Keith Wilson pays tribute to Millgate's many contributions to Hardy studies by bringing together new work by fifteen of the world's most eminent Hardy scholars.
PDF
