Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Thomas Hardy
-
Standard Name: Hardy, Thomas
TH
was a poet by vocation and became a novelist by profession. The Wessex of his novels has made him arguably a regional novelist. As well as a prolific output in both these forms, he published a unique verse epic bringing together human and supernatural characters, short fiction, a volume for children, and two volumes of actual autobiography masquerading as a biography by his second wife. Since his career as a publishing novelist ran from the 1870s to the 1890s, and his first volume of poetry post-dated his final novel, he has been seen as a Victorian novelist but a mostly twentieth-century poet. This description, however, is not true to the facts of composition. He wrote poetry from early in his life, but did not publish it in volume form until his final novel.
His selection was resolutely unfashionable, favouring Hardy
and Betjeman
at the expense of Eliot
and Pound
. He was, however, remarkably generous in his selection of women poets (often for just one or two poems...
Family and Intimate relationships
Q. D. Leavis
The Roths were devastated by their daughter's decision to marry a gentile. They disowned her and ceased to give her any financial support. However, this period had its happy moments as well. Q. D. introduced...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Q. D. Leavis
Here and elsewhere she published on a wide range of authors and literary topics, including Trollope
, Hardy
, Gissing
, Forster
, Orwell
, and Aldous Huxley
; the Anglo-Irish, American, French, Italian, and...
Textual Features
Ada Leverson
In this novel Valentia Wyburn, another clever woman, has been five years married and has a lover (though their sexual relationship is never particularised) besides her husband. But she breaks with him when she discovers...
Bowker, Gordon. “Obituary: Cecily Mackworth”. The Independent.
Mackworth, Cecily. Out of the Black Mountains.
17
Education
Cecily Mackworth
She was at first educated at home by thirteen successive governesses. Her mother sometimes read aloud to her daughters: R. D. Blackmore
' Lorna Doone and Anna Sewell
's Black Beauty. After meeting Hardy
Leisure and Society
Lucas Malet
Schaffer writes that she re-invented herself by means of her change in appearance between 1892, when Thomas Hardy
found her tall and striking in looks and likeable in manner, and a decade later, when an...
Literary responses
Lucas Malet
Thomas Hardy
told LM
after reading this novel that she was one of the few authors of the other sex who are not afraid of logical consequences.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
153
He also said that the wages of...
Textual Production
Charlotte Mew
CM
's manuscripts of poems and short stories and her unpublished letters are held in the British Library
and in the Lockwood Memorial Library at SUNY Buffalo
. The librarians at Buffalo are said to...
Friends, Associates
Charlotte Mew
CM
visited Thomas Hardy
at his home; he requested the meeting after reading and admiring her poetry.
Monro, Alida, and Charlotte Mew. “Charlotte Mew—A Memoir”. Collected Poems of Charlotte Mew, Gerald Duckworth, p. vii - xx.
Monro, Alida, and Charlotte Mew. “Charlotte Mew—A Memoir”. Collected Poems of Charlotte Mew, Gerald Duckworth, p. vii - xx.
xv
Stanford, Donald E., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 19. Gale Research.
311
Author summary
Charlotte Mew
Charlotte Mew is best known and regarded as an early twentieth century poet, though she also published a few short stories and essays. Her poems, often dramatic monologues, are haunted by unrequited love, the renunciation...
death
Charlotte Mew
The day before she died, CM
gave Alida Monro
a cherished copy of her poem Fin de Fête, the one transcribed in the British Library by Thomas Hardy
.
Monro, Alida, and Charlotte Mew. “Charlotte Mew—A Memoir”. Collected Poems of Charlotte Mew, Gerald Duckworth, p. vii - xx.
xii
Literary responses
Charlotte Mew
May Sinclair
thought Madeleine magnificent, having depths & depths of passion & of sheer beauty.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press.
191
She also enjoyed the high Victorian melodrama of Mew's reading aloud.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press.
192
Despite her efforts to bring The Farmer's...
Literary responses
Charlotte Mew
Thomas Hardy
was very much impressed by the volume, and requested a meeting with CM
at his home. He judged her far and away the best living woman poet—who will be remembered when others are...