Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Butler, Lance St John
Mayhead, Robin

Paperback

Series: British and Irish Authors

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0521292719
ISBN13: 9780521292719
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: Feb 23 1978
Pages: 188
Weight: 0.60
Height: 0.51 Width: 5.52 Depth: 8.53
Language: English
This study of Thomas Hardy provides a substantial introduction to his six major novels and his poems. It deals more briefly with the minor fiction.

Hardy now seems a more important novelist and poet than at any previous time. This importance is only partly due to his capabilities as a social historian or provincial chronicler. Far more important than these is his faithful exploration of the daily trials and tragedies of men and women as feeling beings. Man and woman in love, man and woman 'up against it', are his theme.

Mr. Butler's study of his work emphasizes this central aspect of Hardy's fiction and poetry. His tendency to universalize his tragic material, in which he is akin to Shakespeare, is seen as his abiding achievement. Detailed analyses are made of some crucial passages in the major novels and a serious attempt is made to counter the proposition that Hardy 'wrote badly'. Some of his quirkier writing is looked at honestly, but the conclusion is that Hardy was a novelist who, above all, know what he was doing and did it well.

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