Hardy Women

Regular price €18.50
A01=Paula Byrne
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Paula Byrne
automatic-update
biographer
British authors
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGL
Category=DNBL
Category=DSBF
Category=JBSF1
Category=JFSJ1
characters
classic literature
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Pre-order
Dorset
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Far from the Maddening Crowd
female characters
fictional
imagination
Jude the Obscure
Language_English
literature
Mayor of Casterbridge
nineteenth century
novelist
novels
PA=Not yet available
passions
poet
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Forthcoming
real
social critique
softlaunch
Tess of the d’Ubervilles
Thomas Hardy
tragedy
Wessex

Product details

  • ISBN 9780008322298
  • Weight: 580g
  • Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 30 Jan 2025
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
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A Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Bookseller and at Waterstones

'He understands only the women he invents – the others not at all'

Thomas Hardy is one of the most beloved and most-read British authors. His influence on literature and the minds of his readers is singular. But how is it that the novelist who created some of the most memorable and modern female characters in literature had such troubled relationships with real women?

In this highly innovative book, acclaimed biographer Paula Byrne re-examines Hardy’s life through the eyes of the women who made him – mother, sisters, girlfriends, wives, muses. The story veers from shocking scenes such as his obsession with the sight of a woman hanged, to poignant vignettes of unfulfilled passion, to fascinating details of working women’s lives in the nineteenth century.

Hardy Women is the story of how the magnificent fictional women he invented would not have been possible without the hardship and hardiness of the real ones who shaped his passions and his imagination. It is only through understanding and witnessing these hardy women that we can truly enter the heart of this great novelist and poet.

Paula Byrne is the author the bestselling biographies Perdita, Mad World, The Real Jane Austen, Belle, Kick and The Genius of Jane Austen. She is founder and chief executive of ReLit, the Bibliotherapy Foundation, a charity devoted to the mental health benefits of reading. She is married to Sir Jonathan Bate.