Description
This major new reading of the novels of Thomas Hardy, by leading critic George Levine, disentangles the author's often elaborately distanced prose from his beautiful poetic and precise renderings of the natural world. Clear, direct and minimally academic in his own writing, Levine provides an overview of Hardy's entire fictional canon, with extensive discussions of his early and late novels including his last, The Well-Beloved. Levine draws new attention to the way Hardy absorbed both the ideas and the writing strategies of Charles Darwin, and develops new perspectives first articulated in the criticism of great novelists - in particular Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence. Levine departs from the critical norm by reading Hardy in the context of his deep feeling for the natural world and all living things, and the implicit affirmation of life that sometimes drives his bleakest narratives.
A powerful new account of Hardy's novels by a leading scholar, emphasizing their affirmative elements and their often poetic prose.
About the Author
George Levine is Professor Emeritus of English at Rutgers University, New Jersey and has published broadly on Victorian topics, including authoring Darwin and the Novelists (1988), How to Read the Victorian Novel (2007) and the award-winning Realism, Ethics and Secularism: Essays on Victorian Literature and Science (Cambridge, 2008). He is editor of The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot (Cambridge, 2001) and was co-editor of the journal Victorian Studies in its early years.
Reviews
'A wide range of readers will be attracted by the accessible style, moderate length, and reasonable price of Reading Thomas Hardy. Those less familiar with Hardy criticism will benefit from Levine's adept summaries of some of the major areas of debate, which cover questions of realism, style, respectability, narrative position, and observation. But, above all, this book will bring into critical view a more dynamic understanding of Hardy - a writer whose attentiveness to the natural world re-enchants his readers.' Jonathan Godshaw Memel, Modern Language Review
Book Information
ISBN 9781316630808
Author George Levine
Format Paperback
Page Count 162
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 290g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 8mm
A powerful new account of Hardy's novels by a leading scholar, emphasizing their affirmative elements and their often poetic prose.
About the Author
George Levine is Professor Emeritus of English at Rutgers University, New Jersey and has published broadly on Victorian topics, including authoring Darwin and the Novelists (1988), How to Read the Victorian Novel (2007) and the award-winning Realism, Ethics and Secularism: Essays on Victorian Literature and Science (Cambridge, 2008). He is editor of The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot (Cambridge, 2001) and was co-editor of the journal Victorian Studies in its early years.
Reviews
'A wide range of readers will be attracted by the accessible style, moderate length, and reasonable price of Reading Thomas Hardy. Those less familiar with Hardy criticism will benefit from Levine's adept summaries of some of the major areas of debate, which cover questions of realism, style, respectability, narrative position, and observation. But, above all, this book will bring into critical view a more dynamic understanding of Hardy - a writer whose attentiveness to the natural world re-enchants his readers.' Jonathan Godshaw Memel, Modern Language Review
Book Information
ISBN 9781316630808
Author George Levine
Format Paperback
Page Count 162
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 290g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 8mm
