Thomas Hardy Forum

Thomas Hardy

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One of you brilliant minds must have an affection for Thomas Hardy?? Tell me about it, please...

>>By Kelsey (Monday, 29 Sep 2003 02:22)

I discovered Hardy only recently. I enjoy Victorian writers in general, but Hardy's novels sounded a bit like Fielding's who is not my favourite. After having read all of jane Austen, elisabeth Gaskell, most of Dickens' and Wilkie Collins' novels, I decided to give it a try with "the return of the native" and was instantly under the spell. His descriptions are both wonderfully sensitive and vivid.

>>By Kara (Wednesday, 28 Jan 2004 20:18)

Thomas Hardy is to modern literature as nusery rymes to novels..His words evoke feelings of angst, love, sympathy, anger, etc. He is without question one of my favorite, if not my favorite author. I have been reading since the age of three, and am now 56. Come on kids, try a little real meat for a change. Tess, with the scene where the blood drips down the ceiling in heart shaped drops, or when she isn't allowed to bury her child in"consecrated ground".
The Mayor of Casterbridge, when he learns he gained everything the world counted, and lost all that counted for him. All I can say is "go for it". You'll be a better person after you discover Thomas Hardy. Then you can move on to real literature!

>>By willwrite (Thursday, 12 Aug 2004 04:57)

I heartily concur - the altruistic Tess, 'more sinned against than sinning' is an amazing character. I love Hardy's way of connecting women to nature and its endless bounty.

My favourite passage has to be where Tess is walking across the field and the spittle from the milk thistle etc catches on her dress. There is so much sexual tension in the book, that you can hardly believe that there was not a massed Victorian outcry. Well, perhaps I can believe it - they were a raunchy old bunch the Victorians, they just pretended to be otherwise!

>>By Mme Bovary (Thursday, 26 Aug 2004 13:31)

I have read most of Hardy's novels and my favorite is Jude the Obscure followed by Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I have always enjoyed Victorian authors but Hardy is by far my favorite because of the he gives you a very intimate relationship with his main charecters. You can relate to what their going through in the story and compare to your own life experiences.

>>By Sven (Friday, 17 Sep 2004 04:47)

am looking for a poem written by Thomas Hardy under the title RAPE OF THE LOCK.

can anyone help me find it !

>>By Ghaa (Sunday, 28 Nov 2004 07:22)

Ghaa,
All the websites I found say that Rape of the Lock is by Alexander Pope! Are you sure that it's by Thomas Hardy?

>>By erwin (Wednesday, 1 Dec 2004 06:15)

Best book by Hardy is The Return of the Native. Wonderfully varied characters - and the emotions in it are woven around a piece of land - the evocative Egdon Heath. I think the Heath may actually be intended to be the reader because everything comes back to it and encloses it just like a book takes you in and holds you. You sit there and the the page shines on your face when you read Hardy but when you close the book, a darkness descends. The narrative goes round and round and you love it and don't want it to finish - just like eating an excellent dinner..

>>By nadolig (Monday, 5 Jun 2006 00:23)

He is also a very great poet (his first love), very underrated. Try "The Voice" for starters.

>>By runner (Monday, 5 Jun 2006 18:19)

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