Thomas Hardy: His Life and Friends

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Ancestry and Birth

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 1-10

3. School and Manor

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 11-22

4. Further Education

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 23-38

5. Hicks, Barnes, and Bastow

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 39-48

6. The Moules of Fordington

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 49-58

7. Arthur Blomfield and London

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 59-77

8. First Verse and Fiction

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 78-93

9. Emma Gifford

   • F. B. Pinion

   Pages 94-110

10. Shock, Success, and Marriage

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 111-123

11. Leslie Stephen

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 124-137

12. ‘A Two-Years’ Idyll’

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 138-153

13. ‘The FAILURE of THINGS’

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 154-163

14. This Way and That

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 164-175

15. At Wimborne Minster

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 176-185

16. Gosse, Dorchester, and The Mayor

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 186-196

17. Max Gate, The Woodlanders, and Italy

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 197-209

18. Tales and Tess

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 210-224

19. Florence Henniker

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 225-239

20. Jude and Consequences

    • F. B. Pinion

    Pages 240-255

This biography contains new disclosures and interpretations of evidence, neglecting nothing significant in Hardy's early years or his later life. It draws from innumerable sources, including all his published writings (not least the poems), biographies of him and of contemporaries, correspondence of friends and acquaintances, Emma Hardy's diaries, and many unpublished letters from her and Florence Hardy, and brief background introductions indicate how some of Hardy's friends influenced his career or enriched his life.

• drama
• fiction
• Thomas Hardy

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