Publisher's Synopsis
Author Ralph Pite investigates the validity of long-accepted views of the author: Was his early life devoted to his preparation for becoming a writer? Did his first wife, Emma, trick him into an unwanted marriage? Was his poetry far dearer to his heart than the novels? And was Florence, his second wife, as conflicted and passionate as caricatures have suggested? Pite examines the relationships and contexts that shaped Hardy most-the women in his life, his friends and mentors, social and family pressures, career structures of his day, the Devonshire landscape-and offers new insight into the man who, until now, was hidden behind an opaque public image he helped to create.