H04058 MURIAL SPARK ON HARDY - 9/20/04 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES
From: ? hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Spark on Hardy
Date: September 20, 2004 4:04:14 PM PDT
Dear All,
In his New York Times (Sept.19) review of Muriel Spark's new novel, *The
Finishing School* Thomas Mallon quotes a comment made by the author to an
earlier reviewer about her most famous book:
"I can't tell you how bored I am with Miss Brodie. Thomas Hardy used to
talk about Tess of the d'Urbervilles as 'Tess my old milch cow' because she
brought him a lot of money, and I really feel the same about Miss Brodie."
I've always understood that particular anecdote about Hardy (I don't have
the source at hand, and am paraphrasing) to refer to his rather laconic
response to a gushing female fan who accosted him at a party asking him
what Tess meant to him. I always found it amusing, but never took it to
mean that Hardy was ever, in any way bored with Tess, do you?
Betty
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From: DPowers328@aol.com
Subject: Re: Spark on Hardy
Date: September 20, 2004 5:49:35 PM PDT
No, just bored with gushing fans.
Donna
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From: harrys@cnetco.com
Subject: Spark on Hardy
Date: September 20, 2004 6:04:14 PM PDT
I believe it was characteristic of Hardy to downplay his feelings. This is
evident in the touches of irony or practicality with which he finishes
certain statements in the novels and the poetry. Nevertheless, almost all of
these statements carry at least a double meaning. "Tess my old milchcow"
might certainly be interpreted materialistically by his listener, or anyone
venturing too close to him. I have the impression that he was a very
private individual, especially emotionally. Furthermore, the loving, almost
mystical relationship Tess has as a milkmaid with the dairy cows brings into
focus her qualities as a nature-provider in whatever sense can be applied -
if the public responded to her with approval and sympathy, then indeed she
"fed" her source. This is a far way from being bored with Tess, and an even
farther way from the implication that his creation of Tess was mercenary.
Joan Sheski
www.purewatercolors.biz
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From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Re: Spark on Hardy
Date: September 21, 2004 7:38:39 AM PDT
I do not have here the source for that quote but it probably
was in a biography of Alexander Macmillan. The remark
was in a conversation between them in which Hardy said to
Macmillan that Tess had been a good milch cow for both of
them.
Bob Schweik
Robert Schweik
University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
Department of English
State University of New York
Fredonia, NY 14063
USA
schweik@fredonia.edu
schweikr@localnet.com
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: Spark on Hardy
Date: September 21, 2004 8:53:48 AM PDT
Bob's mention of Macmillan triggered my memory of where I read about that
anecdote.
I found it in James Gibson's edition of _Thomas Hardy: Interviews and
Recollections_, (Macmillan, 1999), a fascinating collection of facts,
incidentally. Gibson states that Harold Macmillan told him it was his
favourite story about Hardy:
"He has told it many times and the incidentals were often different but the
substance remained the same. At some function (variously Hardy's cottage,
at Wilton House, and at a 'crush' or party in London) a woman had come up
to Hardy while he was talking to Frederick Macmillan (Harold's uncle:
1851-1936) and asked him 'What did Tess mean to you Mr. Hardy?' After a
moment's reflection, Hardy turned to Sir Frederick and said, 'I don't know
what she meant to you, Sir Frederick, but she was a good milch-cow to me.'
No doubt the woman, failing to recognise Hardy's irony and her own
insensitiveness in asking him such a question in such a public place, went
away convinced that Hardy was concerned only with money." (61)
Betty Cortus
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