In the novel I discuss in this article ( The Woodlanders, written at about the mid-point of his career) the Romantic influence is complex: Hardy has, by this stage of his life, become disillusioned with Victorian society, and observed the inability of Romantic ideals to survive in this world and yet his disillusionment inspires an impulse towards Romanticism, as a solace in the face of an unfamiliar world. By this I mean that Hardy did not challenge Romantic ideals in the way he did in his later novels. So in the earlier novels, the Romantic influence was strong, but it was also largely imitative. In my thesis I argue that Hardy was influenced by Romantic poets to varying degrees throughout his novel-writing career (which spanned from rougly 1870-1897): the influence was not static. It takes one of the chapters from my thesis and draws out the two main points from this chapter, to provide an abbreviated discussion of Hardy's affinity with Wordsworth and Shelley. The following article is a work in progress, taken from my thesis on the Romantic influence on selected novels of Thomas Hardy. "Hardy's Romanticism in The Woodlanders " Holly DavisĬopyright (c) 1997 by Holly Davis, all rights reserved.
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