| H03084 "HARDY AND ARCHITECTURAL QUESTION"10/6/03 HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE
From: "Tom Barwick" <tomachenski@hotmail.com> Subject: Hardy and Architecture Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 21:55:06 +0100
Hardy grew up in rural Dorset as part of a close family, his Father was a succesful builder, and as a result of this sheltered environment Hardy was able to indulge his imagination, and wants, not in altogether the same way as other young men his age. He still had to work, as an apprentice architect, for many years until he devoted his life to writing. His Father must have despaired at the young Hardy's dreaming, but it is to our mutual benefit that he somewhat failed in his 'practical' vocation (architecture) which in turn led him to focus on his observation of people, and their interaction with one another.
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 15:57:44 -0700 From: Betty Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu> Subject: Re: Hardy and Architecture
Dear New HARDY-L Member, Welcome to the list. Your comments about Hardy's background are interesting, but I am not sure from your message whether or not you have a question for the members. Please let us know if we can be of any assistance.
Best Wishes, Betty Cortus.
From: "Tom Barwick" <tomachenski@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Hardy and Architecture Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 21:41:53 +0100
Thank you for your reply. I live in Dorset, and have read a selection of Hardy's novels, including 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', 'The Woodlanders', 'Far From the Madding Crowd', 'The Trumpet Major', and 'Jude the Obscure'. I have also read some of his short stories, and poetry. I didn't really know what to say, or to whom I was speaking in my original message, only that I enjoy Hardy's vision of 19th centuary rural life, and would be interested to discuss other people's interpretations of his work. I gain much enjoyment from visiting the places described by Hardy in the books, and I feel I can picture the scenes much in the way Hardy conceived them. Why do you think Hardy became so dark in his later/last novel? I found 'Jude' very depressing, even horrific, did it in some way reflect his life at the time?
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 15:30:04 -0700 From: Betty Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu> Subject: Re: Hardy and Architecture
Dear Tom, Please correct me if I don't have your name correctly--thank you for telling us a little more about yourself. Perhaps, in turn, you would like to know a few facts about our discussion list. The Hardy Forum had its beginnings in 1997, soon after the establishment of The Thomas Hardy Association. We have members in about twenty or more countries around the world. It is a very friendly and diverse group, and our members range from well-known Hardy scholars, to students, to individuals like yourself, who simply enjoy reading Hardy's works. If you are interested in the kind of discussions we engage in you might like to browse through our archive files which appear on the TTHA website at: www.yale.edu/hardysoc If any of the titles look interesting to you, write to me privately at the address below, giving me the titles and numbers, and I will be happy to forward the complete discussion/s to you. As for Hardy's dark vision in Jude, whether it was influenced by external events, or was just an outgrowth of his particular temperament I cannot say. Maybe other members will have a more considered opinion on this.
Best Wishes, Betty Cortus hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
From: "john bridell" <harrybatt@mn.rr.com> Subject: Re: Hardy and Architecture Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 19:43:32 -0500
Tom: In Martinstown a few miles south of Dorchester, you can find a sketch of the manor, a drawing by Hardy at Rew Manor. The lady would probably be happy to let you see it in the bothy. Hardy was hired to evaluate the manor for architectural purposes. Jude? I don't get too excited about Jude being afflicted with the gloomy side of life. I'd wager that Hardy just had a good idea for a story about the social system. His main character just came from the wrong side of the tracks, which fact led to a depressing path leading to a cheerless outcome. I liked Jude the Obscure because it exceeded all of Hardy's previous writing skill. In good spirit. John Bridell, MInneapolis, MN USA Of the Samways, and the Whittles, and Sydling St. Nicholas
Thank you for your reply. I live in Dorset, and have read a selection of Hardy's novels, including 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', 'The Woodlanders', 'Far From the Madding Crowd', 'The Trumpet Major', and 'Jude the Obscure'. I have also read some of his short stories, and poetry. I didn't really know what to say, or to whom I was speaking in my original message, only that I enjoy Hardy's vision of 19th centuary rural life, and would be interested to discuss other people's interpretations of his work. I gain much enjoyment from visiting the places described by Hardy in the books, and I feel I can picture the scenes much in the way Hardy conceived them. Why do you think Hardy became so dark in his later/last novel? I found 'Jude' very depressing, even horrific, did it in some way reflect his life at the time?
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 23:00:12 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan <rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu> Subject: Re: Hardy and Architecture
My own sense is that Hardy's father enjoyed his son-- taking him out late at night, fiddle at the ready, to play music with him when he was just a wee lad, knowing how he inspired deep affection in the heart of Lady Augusta Martin at the Manor and the eminent Moule family at the parsonage, watching him progress beyond his own trade as a builder to become employed, as architect, by a London firm of high standing, and then to win a prize for his essay on becoming an architect.
From: Patrick Mulcahey <mulcahey@pacbell.net> Subject: RE: Hardy and Architecture Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 20:39:24 -0700
No bad mood or real-life disappointment can account for JUDE THE OBSCURE, and Hardy is too much the novelist to carry out anything like a social critique. (Unlike Dickens -- look at HARD TIMES.) Hardy kept the social critic in him in check by holding himself to a higher novelistic standard in JUDE. Arabella and Phillotson are successful not as ideas but as characters, Sue is endlessly evocative but hardly representative of anything, and the language of the telling is sedulously clean and spare. Hardy is provocative, certainly, raising pointed little questions in the reader's mind: "What's wrong with marriage?" "What's wrong with universities?" But his mental engines are fueled by a bigger question, not "Why is suffering necessary?" but "Why is cruelty necessary?" The question little Jude asks himself as he drives birds away from Farmer what's-his-name's planted field.
It seems to me that in JUDE Hardy is using British institutions -- churches, schools, Oxford -- the way he used the relics and monuments of Anglo-Saxon history in TESS, as a hall of mirrors by whose ever-reflecting lights and shadows we see how hard hemmed-in is what we think of as ordinary happiness. And I would contend that the architecture of TESS is assurance that Hardy was a brilliant success at his apprenticeship. There he designed a structure that cannot be toppled.
From: "Tom Barwick" <tomachenski@hotmail.com> Subject: RE: Hardy and Architecture Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 22:13:52 +0100
I think Jude is, in essence, a dreamer, who is a victim of circumstance; but also shows a lack of judgement at crucial times in his life, and a lack of emotional control. When he is tempted by Arabella, he cannot control his lust, and neglects his studies. If he was indeed serious about aspiring to a better class, and University, he needed to show a little more staying power. After all getting into University then was not as easy for the poor as it is today. His inability to adapt to his developing life, is a melancholy sickness, dreaming of being a great scholar, but not focusing on the reality of his own life. His final mistake is when he makes Sue and his family wait in the rain, to watch the University parade, and then gives a fools speach to his working-class peers who mock his intellectual heirs and graces. Sue despairs at their situation, and 'Father Time' does what he thinks is right. I think the novel is about peoples frustrations and distorted perceptions, and how they deal with them. i.e. Phillotston does a better job than Fawley. I don't think there is much intended cuelty in the novel, most of the hardship is self inflicted. Diggory Venn.
From: "Tom Barwick" <tomachenski@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Hardy and Architecture Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 22:37:36 +0100
Thanks for your reply, it's interesting to hear other peoples ideas. Who is Lady Augusta Martin, and the Moule family? What are the underlying themes in 'Return of the Native', I prefer it to Jude. Diggory Venn is constant wheras Jude is a hapless dreamer.Must dash. |