Thomas Hardy – The Time-Torn Man
The Extraordinary Story of the Author of Tess and Jude
Mar 31, 2009
Thomas Hardy remains one of Britain’s best-loved novelists and poets, studied in schools and enjoyed by millions through a constant stream of television adaptations. His writing career spanned over sixty years, and he was witness to much of the great march of progress that so epitomised Victorian Britain.
Yet Hardy’s long and illustrious life began in more modest circumstances. He was born in 1840, to a mother who had become pregnant out of wedlock and hastily married the amiable musician and builder who was Hardy’s father. The family was not wealthy, but Hardy’s childhood was, by and large, a happy one – an unrequited love for his school teacher at the age of nine notwithstanding.
Hardy's Early Career as an Architect
The young Hardy’s initial ambition was to be an architect, and he moved from his home county of Dorset across to London in 1862 to pursue this career. Despite his obvious talent, he hated living in London, and in 1867 returned to Dorset to follow the writing career for which he is known today.
His first published books soon appeared, albeit anonymously; Desperate Remedies and Under the Greenwood Tree were published in 1871 and 1872 respectively. Hardy didn’t have long to wait until his first major success – Far from the Madding Crowd in 1874 allowed Hardy to give up architecture for good, and he followed it up with such works as The Return of the Native (1878) and The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886).
Controversy of Tess and Jude
Despite Hardy’s growing reputation as a writer, his later novels were to cause controversy and put him off the genre for good. Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) provoked comment from readers who felt Hardy was too sympathetic towards his heroine, who does after all have a baby out of wedlock and then commit murder. 1895’s Jude the Obscure was even more problematic – Victorian readers were shocked by its content, which included unmarried sex and infanticide.
Hardy as Poet
Hardy was saddened by the reception of this daringly complex novel. Now in his fifties, he directed his literary career onto a different path, and pursued a career as a poet rather than a novelist. This aspect of his work is perhaps best illustrated by the sequence of verses he began in 1912, mourning the loss of his wife Emma. The poems are beautiful, depicting a genuine and profound grief for the “woman much missed” (The Voice).
Yet Hardy had not been a good husband. He and Emma had been unhappy for much of their married life; indeed, Hardy had spent much of it infatuated with other women, including his second wife Florence, whom he had first met in 1905.
It is one of the many strengths of Tomalin’s biography that she does not shirk away from exploring these apparently contradictory aspects of Hardy’s nature. Whether a poet or a novelist; a devoted husband or an errant philanderer, she never loses sight of the extraordinary life of this remarkable writer.
Thomas Hardy – The Time-Torn Man by Claire Tomalin is published in paperback by Penguin (2008), ISBN 978-0-141-01741-9.
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