Ambivalence in Hardy : A Study of His Attitude Towards Women

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. IX X ## Preface I cannot personally find any ambivalence in it. Despite modern readings of voyeurism and sado-masochism, Hardy's emotional commitment to Tess is so total, so personal, and so sincere (he even at one time thought of naming the novel Tess of the Hardys'), that it seems perverse to question his sympathy. "Here the Hardy canon is challenged through the analysis of two 'minor' novels, The Hand of Ethelberta and Two on a Tower, and with the help of manuscript evidence, a revolutionary re-reading of The Woodlanders is offered. Generous references to Hardy's letters, autobiography, literary notebooks, marginalia, and the letters of his two wives seek to blend a biographical approach with a feminist reading. Parallelisms between Hardy's fiction and that of contemporary feminist writers are explored to suggest mutual literary influence. Hardy's relations with contemporary women writers, especially his protegees and his 'scribbling' wives, are discussed in unprecedented detail. An analysis of the short stories makes a case for Hardy as the champion of 'Woman as Victim', while his changing responses to the Suffrage movement suggest a deep-rooted ambivalence that makes any glib appropriation of Hardy under the feminist banner too simplistic. This book thus highlights the tensions and contradictions between Hardy the apologist for women and Hardy the alleged misogynist."--Jacket Here the Hardy canon is challenged through the analysis of two `minor' novels, The Hand of Ethelberta and Two on a Tower, and with the help of manuscript evidence a revolutionary re-reading of The Woodlanders is offered. Generous references to Hardy's letters, autobiography, literary notebooks, marginalia, and the letters of his two wives seek to blend a biographical approach with a feminist reading. Parallelisms between Hardy's fiction and that of contemporary feminist writers are explored to suggest mutual literary influence. Hardy's relations with contemporary women writers, especially his proťǧes and his `scribbling' wives, are discussed in unprecedented detail. An analysis of the short stories makes a case for Hardy as the champion of `Woman as Victim', while his changing responses to the Suffrage movement suggest a deep-rooted ambivalence that makes any glib appropriation of Hardy under the feminist banner too simplistic. This book thus highlights the tensions and contradictions between Hardy the apologist for women and Hardy the alleged misogynist This book re-examines the critical debate regarding Hardy's attitude to women: apologist or misogynist? With the help of manuscript evidence and references to Hardy's autobiography, letters, literary notebooks, marginalia, and the letters of his wives, this book combines a biographical approach with a feminist reading. Significant space is devoted to the 'minor' novels, the short stories, and to Hardy's real life literary relations with his contemporary women writers, his protégées and his two 'scribbling' wives, to balance the hitherto exclusive focus on the 'major' novels Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: The Critics’ Debate....Pages 1-21 The Hand of Ethelberta....Pages 23-36 The Return of the Native....Pages 37-55 Two on a Tower....Pages 57-71 The Woodlanders....Pages 73-91 The Short Stories of the 1890s....Pages 93-109 Jude the Obscure....Pages 111-130 Hardy, his Wives, and his Literary Protégées....Pages 131-159 Hardy and Some Contemporary Female Writers....Pages 161-198 Conclusion: ‘A Confused Heap of Impressions’....Pages 199-220 Back Matter....Pages 221-256