Ambivalence in Hardy: A Study of his Attitude Towards Women

Ambivalence in Hardy challenges the Hardy canon through the analysis of two "minor" novels: The Hand of Ethelberta and Two on a Tower, and with the help of manuscript evidence a revolutionary re-reading of The Woodlanders is offered. Generous references to Hardy's letters, autobiography, literary notebooks, marginalia, and the letters of his two wives, seek to blend a biographical approach with a feminist reading. Parallelisms between Hardy's fiction and that of contemporary women writers, especially his protégés and his "scribbling" wives, are discussed in unprecedented detail. An analysis of the short stories makes a case for Hardy as the champion of "Woman as Victim," while his changing responses to the Suffrage movement suggest a deep-rooted ambivalence that makes any glib appropriation of Hardy under the feminist banner too simplistic. This book thus highlights the tensions and contradictions between Hardy and the apologist for women and Hardy the alleged misogynist.