Thomas Hardy and the Literary Pilgrims

Abstract

R EADERS OF THE PREFACES to Thomas Hardy's novels are inevitably struck by his apparent obsession with topographical detail. The recent gathering-together of these prefaces by Harold Orel in Thomas Hardy's Personal Writings has drawn particular attention to this preoccupation.' No other major novelist, it may be observed, has concerned himself so minutely with issues which literary critics consider to be at best peripheral. Closer investigation, however, reveals that prefaces in question were all written in or after 1890's; indeed, they reflect impact of a late nineteenth-century group of enthusiasts whom I shall here call, for convenience, literary pilgrims. Later commentators have, naturally enough, concentrated on more important aspects, but it is a mistake to ignore literary pilgrims, since they had a considerable influence whose effect has not yet been fully realized. Their approach was both a reflection of, and a contribution to, popularity of Hardy's writings. Even accompanying maps of Wessex, which we accept without question in nearly all modern editions, are a direct result of their topographical interests. Most important, however, is fact that Hardy's own actions and attitudes were significantly affected, and no study of his artistic development is complete without an understanding of his shifting reactions to this group. As we shall see, literary pilgrims gradually forced him in a direction which he had originally taken pains to avoid. The growth of Hardy's Wessex was gradual and by no means smooth. Although we now speak freely of the Wessex novels, Hardy first employed term during composition of Far