Fathom, 3 | 2016 (original) (raw)

Desire, Repulsion and Acceptance in Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd

Филолошки преглед, 2021

This article explores the Gothic elements in Far From the Madding Crowd and how these elements are mingled with the realistic ones. Such blending of Gothic romanticism with late nineteenth century realism in Hardy's major novels amplifies the thematic and dramatic effects with which the writer was concerned. It is thus apparent that Hardy's fiction contains a great deal of material that originates in Gothic romance, but Hardy's bewildering use of gothic imagery in his non-gothic novel is also very interesting.

Far from the Madding Crowd at 150: Seven Reflections

Dickens Studies Annual: Essays on Victorian Fiction, 2024

ABSTRACT Seven scholars of Victorian literature reflect on Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd in honor of the 150th anniversary of its publication. The authors reflect their personal responses to the novel, and each has a unique focus. KEYWORDS Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy, Victorian novels, Cornhill Magazine 1874, Hardy in Korea

Tragedy, Comedy, and Chance in Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd

Critical Insights: Thomas Hardy, 2021

In 1874, Thomas Hardy was thirty-four and moonlighting as a writer. His day job as an architect paid the bills. Far from the Madding Crowd, his fourth published novel, was being anonymously serialized in the popular London magazine Cornhill. Rumor had it that it was George Eliot's new novel. 1 It was a hit. Its success allowed Hardy to become a full-time writer. Like the fi ctional events in the novel, the real-life events that led to his breakthrough were full of chance, risk, and the random element. The coincidences that led to Hardy's rise began in 1862 when he started working for Arthur Blomfi eld, a London architect located at 9 St. Martin's Place (Millgate 74). In the same building, at 8 St. Martin's Place, was the Alpine Club (Halperin 740). Its president was Leslie Stephen. In 1862, Stephen published Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers, recounting his ascent-the fi rst-of the Schreckhorn, a 4078 meter alpine peak. Hardy was familiar with Stephen's book (Halperin 740-41). His familiarity was unsurprising: it was the golden age of mountaineering. What is surprising, however, is that years later, Stephen would be the one to give Hardy his golden opportunity. By chance, their paths had crossed; and by chance, their paths would keep crossing. Flash forward ten years. Hardy has moved to Dorset, where he was working on his third novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes. In November 1872, he picked up a copy of Fraser's Magazine. One of the pieces was Stephen's fi ctional short story "A Bad Five Minutes in the Alps," about a fall that leaves a mountaineer two hundred feet above a torrent hanging by a rhododendron stem. Hardy, captivated, rewrites Stephen's story into his own (literal) cliff hanger scene in A Pair of Blue Eyes (Halperin 742-44). 2 Their paths were crossing again.

Some Thoughts on… Far from the Madding Crowd and its Adaptations

FATHOM, 2016

In the whole of Hardy’s work, Far from the Madding Crowd is probably to this day the novel having entailed the most numerous and varied adaptations. This essay seeks to offer some thoughts on the way several filmmakers as well as one opera composer and one cartoonist have made Hardy’s work their own. The multiplication of adaptations in very recent years naturally testifies to the modernity of Hardy’s writing. But one might also wonder what appealed to a variety of artistic practices in that particular novel of Hardy’s. This essay looks at fundamental features of Hardy’s novel – its pastoralism and blending of the tragic and the comical – and examines how such distinctive features have been transposed in cinematographic, operatic and graphic modes.

Thomas Hardy and His Readers: Contradictions of the Rebellious Serial Writer

This contribution explores the relationship between Thomas Hardy and his contemporary readers from The Poor Man and the Lady, his first, unpublished, novel, to The Well- Beloved, his last one. It discovers a writer split into two, with Hardy, the artist, striving to cohabitate with Hardy-the serial writer for the three decades his career as a novelist lasted. In order to fully appreciate Hardy's novels as they have reached us nowadays, after the 1912 Wessex edition, we should focus on the contradictions between their initial manuscripts, their edited versions for the family magazines and their final reconstructions into volume forms. Although Hardy certainly wanted quick success with the Victorian masses he never let go of his "higher aspirations" to be received differently by a more select readership, even if this alternative reading had to be done between the lines at a later stage.