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Dutton,Professor of EnglishLancaster University  \nThis series offers stimulating accounts of the literary careers ofthe most admired and influential English-language authors.Volumes follow the outline of writers'working lives,not inthe spirit of traditional biography,but aiming to tracethe professional,publishing and social contexts whichshaped their writing.  \nA list of the published titles in this series follows overleaf.  \n## Published titles\n\nMorris BejaJAMES JOYCECedric C.BrownJOHN MILTONPeter DavisonGEORGE ORWELLRichard Dutton  \nWILLIAM SHAKESPEAREJan FergusJANE AUSTENJames GibsonTHOMAS HARDYKenneth GrahamHENRY JAMESPaul HammondJOHN DRYDENW.David KayBEN JONSONMary Lago  \nE.M.FORSTERAlasdair D.F.MacraeW.B.YEATSJoseph McMinnJONATHAN SWIFTKerry McSweeney  \nGEORGE ELIOT (MARIANEVANS)  \nJohn MephamVIRGINIA WOOLF  \nMichael ONeillPERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY  \nLeonée OrmondALFRED TENNYSON  \nGeorge ParfittJOHN DONNE  \nGerald RobertsGERARD MANLEY HOPKINS  \nFelicity RosslynALEXANDER POPE  \nTony Sharpe  \nT.S.ELIOT  \nGrahame SmithCHARLES DICKENS  \nGary WallerEDMUND SPENSER  \nCedric WattsJOSEPH CONRAD  \nJohn WilliamsWILLIAM WORDSWORTH  \nTom Winnifrith and Edward ChithamCHARLOTTE AND EMILYBRONTE  \nJohn Worthen  \nD.H.LAWRENCE  \n# Thomas Hardy\n\nA Literary Life  \nJames Gibson  \n◎ James Gibson 1996  \nAll rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission ofthis publication may be made without written permission.  \nNo paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied ortransmitted save with written permission or in accordance withthe provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copyingissued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham CourtRoad,London W1P 9HE.  \nAny person who does any unauthorised act in relation to thispublication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civilclaims for damages.  \nFirst published 1996 byMACMILLAN PRESS LTD  \nHoundmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG216XSand London  \nCompanies and representativesthroughout the world  \nISBN 0-333-43830-2 hardcover  \nISBN 0-333-43831-0 paperback  \nA catalogue record for this book is availablefrom the British Library.  \n10  9  8  7  6  54  3  20504030201009998  \nPrinted and bound in Great Britain byAntony Rowe LtdChippenham,Wiltshire  \nPublished in the United States of America 1996 byST.MARTIN'S PRESS,INC.Scholarly and Reference Division175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010  \nTo My Hardy Society Friends  \nThis page intentionally left blank  \nPreface  \nix  \nA Note on Textsxi  \n1  \n## Introduction\n\nPhase the First:Preparing to be a Writer (1840-70)  \n3  \nPhase the Second:The Novelist (1870-97)  \n41  \nPhase the Third:The Poet (1898-1928)  \n138  \n## Bibliography\n\n196  \nIndex  \n199  \nThis page intentionally left blank  \n## Preface\n\nIt is a measure of the difference between Edmund Gosse and ThomasHardy that Gosse could describe Hardy's life as'uneventful'.Hardywas so interested in every aspect of the human situation that hewould have seen no human-or animal-life as 'uneventful',andtime has not confirmed Gosse's assumption.At a rough calculationthe three major biographies of Hardy published in the past twentyyears total some 2000 pages,not really an indication of a shortageof events about which to write.  \nTwo problems have confronted me:how to keep my selection ofevents to the number of pages available-and Hardy lived consider-ably longer than almost all other writers in this series-and how toavoid being too dependent on what all serious scholars now regardas the definitive biography-Michael Millgate's Thomas Hardy:A Bio-graphy.My debt to Michael,Iimmediately acknowledge is enormous,not just for his biography but for his edition of Hardy's letters andhis many other contributions to Hardy scholarship.I have not com-pletely solved either problem but it s my hope that I may havewritten a biography that will prove of ","cbCaiejhYsgFtlg4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiejhYsgFtlg4","pdf",13109770,219,"English","# Introduction\n## Phase the First: Preparing to be a Writer (1840-70)\n## Phase the Second: The Novelist (1870-97)\n## Phase the Third: The Poet (1898-1928)\n# Bibliography\n# Index\n# Preface","[{\"question\":\"What guiding approach does the series for these literary lives follow?\",\"answer\":\"It traces writers’ working lives through professional, publishing, and social contexts, not in the spirit of traditional biography.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the book structure Thomas Hardy’s development over time?\",\"answer\":\"It divides Hardy’s career into three phases: preparing to be a writer (1840-70), the novelist (1870-97), and the poet (1898-1928).\"},{\"question\":\"What problems does the author mention in shaping the biography?\",\"answer\":\"Selecting enough events for the available pages and avoiding over-dependence on Michael Millgate’s definitive Hardy biography and related editions.\"}]","Thomas Hardy - A Literary Life - Preface | PDF",1789949539,337]