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Thomas Hardy Poetry & Novels |
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About the Author All Things Hardy on the Victorian Web is a bit convoluted, but deep and rich. Thomas Hardy Society includes an annual essay contest, resources, links to full texts, photographs, maps, and guides to walks in Hardy country. A Timeline includes all major events.
Hardy’s Cottage and Birthplace includes a virtual tour. New York Times Travel Article on Hardy Country “God’s Undertaker: How Thomas Hardy Became Everyone’s Favorite Misanthrope” by Adam Kirsch, 15 January 2007 New Yorker.
Find a Grave: On 16 January 1928 the ashes of Thomas Hardy were buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, immediately to the north of the grave of Charles Dickens, but his heart is buried at Stinsford in Dorset, where his parents lie. It may take some digging to find the exact material you want, but Dr. Florence Boos has excellent study guides for each novel (and many others), broken down chapter-by-chapter. |
Poetry Foundation includes a short biography and 38 poems. Poem Guide for “The Shadow on the Stone.” Poets.org includes 32 poems. Thomas Hardy Society Commentaries -- 36 poems as downloadable documents, each of which includes annotations, commentary and background. Thomas Hardy Poems offers analyses of more than twenty Hardy poems, written by Peter Cash. Individual Poem Questions by Dr. Florence Boos.
Personal favorite “The Ruined Maid.” More than a little ironic. Interesting Atlantic article on the context of this poem. |
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Poetry & Prose AP Lit Prompts In 2002, “The Convergence of the Twain” was the poem chosen for the Poetry Essay prompt. Prompt, samples, scoring guide, and comments, no longer available on the College Board website. In 2008, an exerpt from Tess of the D’Urbervilles was used on the Sample exam as the Prose Prompt. Prompt and Scoring Guide available. In 2016, the Prose Prompt used an exerpt from The Mayor of Casterbridge. Prompt, scoring guidelines, sample student essays (three), and comments, also available on the College Board website. Full set of Range-finders -- prompt, scoring guidelines, samples, and comments. |
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Far from the Madding Crowd The first of Hardy’s novels to be set in his fictional county of Wessex, in rural southwest Englnd, deals in themes of love, honour and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a Victorian farming community. In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.
Films
The 2015 version may appeal more to current students, but it should be previewed for appropriateness. Trailer #1 and Trailer #2. Guardian film review. New York Times film review.
Assignments All Hardy novels are challenging, but this o
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Return of the Native (1878)
Gustav Holt’s Musical Homage to Egdon Heath.
This 1994 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie has tried-and-true actors, stunning scenery, and a haunting score by Carl Davis. Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Eustacia Vye is rather Scarlett O'Hara-esque: willful, restless, and reckless, with both the cool confidence and smoldering beauty to make her bewitching. Accurate costuming and compelling folk songs give an authentic look at rural life in the mid-1800s. Trailer. Full movie available on YouTube. |
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
In a drunken and disheartened state, Michael Henchard sells his wife and child at a fair. When he becomes sober again, he realises what he has done, and though unable to find his wife and child, changes his ways. He becomes the mayor of the town. Nearly twenty years later his past comes back to haunt him.
Assignments
1978 Miniseries and 2003 British Made-for-TV movie are both a bit dull and plodding. |
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Tess, a free-spirited yet naive country girl who will be the victim, the prey, and sometimes the lover of many men, without ever quite understanding what it is that those men want of her. Reading Check Questions-- 100 Recall and Comprehension Questions, organized by chapters. Professor Boos’s Chapter-by-Chapter Questions -- pages and pages. Study Questions -- Thirty challenging analysis questions from several sources.
Assignments
Films
Silent 1924 version is almost impossible to find.
Roman Polanski’s 1979 version is surprisingly delicate. My favorite. Trailer. Unit for film.
1998 British TV Movie is a two-part series. Scene.
2008 4-hour BBC Mini-series is thorough, but a bit tedious. Trailer.
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In 1895 Hardy’s final novel sent shockwaves of indignation rolling across Victorian England. Hardy had dared to write frankly about sexuality and to indict the institutions of marriage, education, and religion. But he had, in fact, created a deeply moral work. The stonemason Jude Fawley is a dreamer; his is a tragedy of unfulfilled aims. With his tantalizing cousin Sue Bridehead, the last and most extraordinary of Hardy’s heroines, Jude takes on the world and discovers, tragically, its brutal indifference. And Arabella is a whole other kind of woman! If you get ONLY one Norton Critical edition, get this one. Perfect for a controlled research paper. The British Library’s overview is a good introduction to the novel and its values. Literary Contexts in Novels can establish more specific contexts. References are my own “footnotes” for the book, with a focus on motifs and allusions.
Assignments Chapter One -- Use this as a passage for analysis, writing MC questions, a prose prompt, vocabularty, annotation -- maybe even months before assigning the book. Use this to teach them how to read Hardy! Exerpt -- description of Christminister as a city of light. Another useful passage. Professor Boos’s Chapter-by-Chapter Questions Questions for Discussion -- all six parts. Book as a Whole -- fifteen topics for analysis. TES Unit -- Best ever, from the UK, nearly forty pages of activities.
Stagy in terms of acting and production, this 1971 serial nevertheless manages to retain some of the power--and often unrecognized dark comedy--of Hardy’s novel. Jude the Obscure was televised in America as part of the first season of the now-legendary Masterpiece Theatre. Trailer.
The cumulative picture of a dank, disapproving late-Victorian world that's ceasing to believe in itself, a world of making ends meet and struggling to escape the abysses of poverty and unrespectability, is unbearably, but believably, grim. 1996 Film with Kate Winslet is out-of-print in the US. Really hard to find. Trailer. Full video (for now). In 11 parts. Just for Fun Abridged Classics -- Five minutes? The Ladies Books and Tackle Society -- Just because the book club name is so danged cute. Book Club discussion.
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Poetry
One advantage to teaching this novel is that it has several film versions. The 1967 version starring Julie Chritie is the better known version, and is available on DVD. 
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Reddleman Diggory Venn drives slowly across Egdon Heath, carrying a hidden passenger in the back of his van. When darkness falls, the country folk light bonfires on the hills, emphasizing the pagan spirit of the heath and its denizens. Misfits and superstitions abound. Sexual politics, thwarted desire, and the conflicting demands of nature and society make this a truly modern novel. 
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Jude the Obscure
Films
