Thomas Hardy

[Deathraystare]

Next book club we have deided to read Thomas Hardy.

I am going to read Far from the Madding Crowd, one fried will read the Woodlanders and the other I cannot remember the title! I read both Tess and The Mayor of Casterbridge already. Anyone else reading him/did read him/will read him??

Obvs we will read each others. I will probably go down the audible route.

I found a book of Hardy's poems with the date 11.5.88 on it so I suppose that's when I bought it.
On the inside cover I've written

'There first heard Thomas Hardy's poetry,
Master of metre, local as his lanes,
The one expressive village fatalist.'

Did Betjman write that about him? I do wish I'd made better notes. 🙁

You've sent me down a rabbithole of internet searches! Betjeman, Larkin, others... still can't trace it anywhere. You sure you didn't write it yourself?! 🤣

Ahh this is a lovely thread to have stumbled across. Watched the short documentary on iPlayer about Hardy the other week - old one rebroadcast yonks ago now but only just got round to watching - and it reminded me how much I admire his work. It so ignited my enjoyment I took Jude the Obscure off my shelf to reread and even visited Max Gate the other week as part of a holiday down there. Very interesting.

We did some of his poetry and the Mayor of Casterbridge for A level and never will I forget the definition of hubris as it completely stumped me - “To what extent does Michael Henchard’s hubris contribute to his downfall?” Discuss! 😂

I have reread Jude recently. I previously read it half a century ago. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to read it again but I did. First time I think I sobbed my heart out.
It is worth reading reading good novels when you are at different stages in your life. You see thing’s differently. Hardy’s poor wife, Emma, tried to stop Jude the Obscure from being published.
I have read quite a lot (but not all) of Hardy.
I think my favourites are Under the Greenwood Tree and the Mayor of Casterbridge.

I googled it but didn't have much time and didn't find an answer as to who might have written it or said it about him.

I just found it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 but it wasn't easy...

You were right, it was Betjeman! See p28 of The Kipling Journal, PDF available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/45273347

Betjeman was describing dinner parties at Oxford.