The Secret Life of Thomas Hardy: "retaliatory Fiction"

This work's ruling assumption is that Hardy was - from the outset of his admirably sustained career as novelist and poet - intent on creative mischief-making. It makes clear how Hardy was an outwardly conforming writer with a smuggled cargo of cultural dissent. Its critical perspectives also show how Hardy's approach to representation takes him beyond realism, revealing the psychological undercurrents which render his writing darkly, deliciously disturbing. Hardy's major novels as well as most of those unfairly considered minor, while also considering Hardy's haunted and haunting poetry. Some film and TV versions of his novels are also examined, with special reference to the pitfalls of adaptation.