Thomas Hardy

Originally published as a biography of Thomas Hardy by Florence, his widow, this ‘Life’ is now known to have been essentially the work of Hardy himself. There has been much critical discussion of its hybrid status, and of Hardy’s motives for contriving what some have seen as a deception.

This controversy has tended to obscure a much more important issue - the oddity, attractiveness and diversity of the work in question. It does give an account of Hardy’s life, from the very moment of …