Thomas Hardy: The World of his Novels - Hardcover

'The Dorset tourist board and the Hardy Country initiative could do worse than promote Bullen's book, which is an excellent guide to the man and to the places in which his unique authorial voice may be fleetingly located.'

'A fascinating companion to Hardy's novels, this inspired piece of literary geography opens a rich window on to the author's world.'

Thomas Hardy’s Wessex is one of the great literary evocations of place, populated with colourful and dramatic characters. As lovers of his novels and poetry know, this ‘partly real, partly dream-country’ was firmly rooted in the Dorset into which he had been born.
J. B. Bullen explores the relationship between reality and the dream, identifying the places and the settings for Hardy’s writing, and showing how and why he shaped them to serve the needs of his characters and plots. The locations may be natural or man-made, but they are rarely fantastic or imaginary. A few have been destroyed and some moved from their original site, but all of them actually existed, and we can still trace most of them on the ground today.
Thomas Hardy: The World of his Novels is essential reading for students of literature and for all Hardy enthusiasts who want to gain new insights into his work