Authors:
Written by an historian this takes a different tack from other books approaching this subject
Argues that Hardy’s understanding of history was shaped both by his early exposure to the Liberal Anglican view of universal history as the gradual fulfillment of God’s providence, and by his subsequent rejection of this view
Adds to the relatively small amount of work done on Hardy and history to date
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Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Empire, War and Revolution
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Front Matter
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About this book
This book addresses the questions 'What did Thomas Hardy think about history and how did this enter into his writings?' Scholars have sought answers in 'revolutionary', 'gender', 'postcolonial' and 'millennial' criticism, but these are found to be unsatisfactory. Fred Reid is a historian who seeks answers by setting Hardy more fully in the discourses of philosophical history and the domestic and international affairs of Britain. He shows how Hardy worked out, from the late 1850s, his own 'meliorist' philosophy of history and how it is inscribed in his fiction. Rooted in the idea of cyclical history as propounded by the Liberal Anglican historians, it was adapted after his loss of faith through reading the works of Auguste Comte, George Drysdale and John Stuart Mill and used to defend the right of individuals to break with the Victorian sexual code and make their own 'experiments in living'.
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Authors and Affiliations
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Kenilworth, United Kingdom
Fred Reid
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Thomas Hardy and History
Authors: Fred Reid
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54175-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-54174-7Published: 06 September 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-85339-0Published: 13 May 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-54175-4Published: 17 August 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 238
Topics: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Fiction, Cultural History