Hardy followed this with ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, set in Puddletown (renamed Weatherby), near his birthplace. This novel finally brought Hardy the success that enabled him to give up his architectural practice and concentrate solely on writing.
The Hardys lived in London for a short time, then in Yeovil, then in Sturminster Newton (Stourcastle), which Hardy described as "idyllic". It was at Sturminster Newton that Hardy penned ‘Return of the Native’, one of his most enduring works.
Finally the Hardys moved to Dorchester, where Thomas designed their new house, Max Gate, into which they moved in 1885. One year later Hardy published The ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’, followed in 1887 by ‘The Woodlanders’ and in 1891 by one of his best works, ‘Tess of the d'Urbervilles’.
‘Tess’ provoked interest, but his next work, ‘Jude the Obscure’ (1896) catapulted Hardy into the midst of a storm of controversy. ‘Jude’ outraged Victorian morality and was seen as an attack upon the institution of marriage. Its publication caused a rift between Thomas and Emma, who feared readers would regard it as describing their own marriage.
Of course the publicity did no harm to book sales, but reader's hid the book behind plain brown paper wrappers, and the Bishop of Wakefield burned his copy! Hardy himself was bemused by the reaction his book caused, and he turned away from writing fiction with some disgust.
For the rest of his life Hardy focussed on poetry, producing several collections, including Wessex Poems (1898).
Emma Hardy died in November 1912, and was buried in Stinsford churchyard. Thomas was stricken with guilt and remorse, but the result was some of his best poetry, expressing his feelings for his wife of 38 years.
All was not gloom, however, for in 1914 Hardy remarried, to Florence Dugdale, his secretary since 1912. Thomas Hardy died on January 11, 1928 at his house of Max Gate in Dorchester. He had expressed the wish to be buried beside Emma, but his wishes were only partly regarded; his body was interred in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, and only his heart was buried in Emma's grave at Stinsford.
Although a rumour has persisted since Hardy's death that it is not the author's heart that was buried beside Emma. The story goes that Hardy's housekeeper placed his heart on the kitchen table, where it was promptly devoured by her cat. Apparently a pig's heart was used to replace Hardy's own. Although there was never any evidence so we will probably never know.
Of the five short stories I have read by Thomas Hardy through the holidays, I personally enjoyed ‘Barbara of the House of Grebe’. Although the five stories are similar with their ‘love triangles’, I liked ‘Barbara of the House of Grebe’ as I fount the story easy to understand and get to grips with.
There are three characters in the ‘love triangle’; they are ‘Barbara’, ‘Lord Uplandtowers’ and ‘Edmund Willowes’. The story follows ‘Barbara’ who has attracted the attention of ‘Lord Uplandtowers’. But she instead marries a man of no nobility, ‘Edmund Willowes’. Her father ‘Sir John Grebe’ reluctantly allows the marriage to go ahead. But ‘Edmund’ must travel the world in order to become educated and articulate. He commissions a sculptor to make a statue of him, this will later figure in the story. But while he was abroad ‘Edmund’ is caught in a fire, and his face is badly burnt and disfigured.
He returns home and ‘Barbara’ rejects him, after seeing his disfigured face, She then marries ‘Uplandtowers’. But her love for ‘Edmund’ remains and when the statue of him arrives, with his original looks, she hides it in a cupboard. And on certain nights she sneaks out of bed to look at it. ‘Uplandtowers’ realises what is going on and has a sculptor remodel the face so it resembles ‘Edmunds’ burnt face. He then makes ‘Barbara’ look at, so that she loves him more by realising she can never have ‘Edmund’ in his original form.
I prefer this story, as I fount it one of the more interesting ‘love triangles’. This is because ‘Barbara’ has married out of her class. To an “imperfectly educated” (p216, line 17) man. Also his
“Blood was, as far as they knew, of no distinction whatever” (p216, line 17).
This shows that ‘Barbara’s’ parents were displeased that she had not chosen someone of “ancient baronial distillation” (p216, line 20), a prime example is ‘Uplandtowers’ who they would prefer her to marry. But instead she chose ‘Edmund’.
Hardy portrays the characters very well, with out going into great detail. He accurately makes a picture of the character in your head.
Hardy’s best area is in his descriptive language, which he uses to describe a scene or setting. They are created by his amazing narrative power. And the vivid sense of relationship to the character. These are the essentials of Hardy’s excellent genius. Many of his most powerful portraits were written in the ‘Distracted Preacher and Other Tales’. ‘Barbara of the House of Grebe’ contains frustrated love and the streak of grotesque is represent by ‘Edmunds’ disfigurement. Here are a few examples,
“…but the sculptural repose of his profile against the vanishing daylight on his friend the Earl’s equanimity was undisturbed.” ( p212, line 19).
This helps immensely to create an accurate image, that is easy to portray but key to the story. I feel the best description is that of the statue after ‘Uplandtowers’ had it altered.
“… set to work upon the god-like countenance of the statue under my lord’s direction. What the fire had maimed in the original the chisel maimed in the copy. It was a fiendish disfigurement, ruthlessly carried out, and was rendered still more shocking by being tinted to the hues of life, as life had been after the wreck.”
It is a dark and chilling description of the anger in ‘Uplandtowers’ and how it drove him to carry out this viscous mental assault upon his wife.
Hardy puts two major twists in the story. The first is when ‘Edmund’ reveals himself to ‘Barbara’, after she said to him
“O Edmund, of course I shall not mind. What has happened to you is our misfortune; but I am prepared for it”. ( p226, line 34)
The second is where ‘Uplandtowers’ commissions a local craftsman to alter the statue of ‘Edmund’ so it resembles is disfigured form. This is too punish ‘Barbara’
Aspects of the other four stories; The Withered Arm, The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion, On the Western Circuit and Fiddler of the Reels, match those in this story. This meant he changed names, distances, relative positions—interestingly, sometimes to make the two areas more identical, sometimes to disguise the locality he had originally chosen to place his stories. This was so that no story was based in exactly the same place in Wessex as another.
The major similarity in all five stories is that of a ‘love triangle’, consisting of one woman and two men. The only exception to this is in ‘On the Western Circuit’, where it consists of two women and one man.
My personal preference for choosing this story as my favourite, was it grabbed my attention and I especially thought that ‘Uplandtowers’ wicked evil train of thought maid this story what it is. As he was angry in the first place that he had lost out on ‘Barbara’. And when even after she had learnt that ‘Edmund’ was disfigured she still loved him, this enraged ‘Uplandtowers’. And I thought the part where he had the statue of ‘Edmund’ disfigured and made ‘Barbara’ look upon was chilling and dark. This is the main reason why I enjoyed this story.
