The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy

One of the literary world's great deceptions was perpetrated when Thomas Hardy wrote his Life in secret for publication after his death as an official biography. Since the true circumstances of its composition have been known The Early Life and Later Years of Thomas Hardy, published over the name of Florence Emily Hardy, has frequently been referred to as Hardy's autobiography. But this is not the whole truth: Florence altered much of what Hardy meant to appear in his 'biography'. Through careful examination of pre- publication texts, Michael Millgate has retrieved the text as it stood at the time of Hardy's final revision. For the first time The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy can be read as a true work of autobiography - an addition to the Hardy canon.

List of Illustrations - Acknowledgements - Introduction - Editorial Procedures - A Note on the Illustrations - THE LIFE AND WORK OF THOMAS HARDY - Early Life and Architecture - Novels to Illness - Illness, Novels and Italy - Between Town and Country - 'Tess', 'Jude' and the End of Prose - Verse, to the End of 'The Dynasts' - 'Time's Laughingstocks' and 'Moments of Vision' - Life's Decline - Conclusion (by Florence Emily Hardy) - Appendices (as included by Florence Emily Hardy) - TEXTUAL APPARATUS - Abbreviations - Editorial Emendations in the Copy Text - Selected Post-Hardyan Revision in Early Life and Later Years - Textual Notes - Biographical Index