3 Review(s)

The great English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) worked with his second wife, Florence, on this account of his life. It was published under her name, in two separate volumes, after his death. Its origins are as fascinating as the man himself: written in the third person, it was compiled from Hardy's selections from his diaries, notebooks and letters, typed up by Florence and further edited by her after he died. The work provides an invaluable, if idiosyncratic, record of Hardy's life and complex, contradictory character. This is the second volume, published in 1930 and covering the period 1892-1928. It includes the publication of Jude the Obscure (1895) and its hostile reception, Hardy's return to writing poetry, the creation of his epic drama The Dynasts (1908), the death of Emma, his first wife, Hardy's response to World War I, and his marriage to Florence Dugdale.