Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses
In his day, Thomas Hardy was renowned for the psychological insight he brought to his female characters. As Byrne relates, Hardy the man had less of this sensitivity than Hardy the writer. This essential dichotomy is encapsulated in two quotations – ‘I wonder at your complete understanding of a woman’s soul’ wrote a woman reader, whilst Emma, his wife of 38 years, commented ‘He understands only the women he creates – the others not at all.’
This compelling book is a biography of Hardy through the eyes of his female relatives, his many female admirers, the women he worshipped from afar, and his two wives, Emma and Florence. It could, conventionally, have been titled ‘Hardy’s Women’, but Byrne cleverly varies the grammar to reflect that they all had to be tough and hardy to cope with his mercurial behaviour – his frequently immature attitude to women, his solipsistic rudeness to both of his wives.
Extremely well-researched, the book is sourced from works by Hardy, including the two volumes of biography published after his death over the name of his second wife Florence (though in fact dictated by the Great Man himself) and many recently published letters. I was intrigued to see how Byrne decodes many personal revelations buried within some of the little-known poems. The book is organised in chapters named after the women in Hardy’s life, ranging from his grandmother to the actress Gertrude Bugler, whose stage portrayals of Tess of the D’Urbervilles transfixed the elderly author in the 1920s. There are also chapters devoted to the women he created, from Bathsheba Everdene to Susanna Bridehead.
Raising fascinating questions about the creation of fictional characters, Hardy Women is an essential read for any Thomas Hardy afficionado, and as a fact-filled narrative, a book to return to time and again.
