I love Thomas Hardy. This love affair began my senior year of High School. We had just moved to Orange County, CA to start a new journey and I got to go to a new school as a senior. I had no friends, didn't go to the prom, and, due to a silly California State law, had to take Driver's Ed - even though I had my license for the last two years!
Anyhow, I started this last year of high school by taking English Lit with Mrs. Leslie. Now, Mrs. Leslie was a small woman who wore really great Sesto Meucci shoes and I'm sure her suits were not St. John's - but they were pretty close. She sometimes woke up late and her hair was messy but she always had her bright pink lipstick on. She used to get so tickled by talking about Thomas Hardy and all the sexual entendre present in his work...through her love of him, I fell in love with his writings as well. I made my mom walk all over London searching for his books (unpublished in the US). We even went to his grave at Westminster Abbey.
There is a new biography out of his life called Thomas Hardy, Life Unobscured. I would love to buy the book, but have had so little time to read for fun! Hardy wrote Jude the Obscure, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and other emotionally charged books. If you want a good place to start with T.H., start with his short story The Withered Arm. I think you'll be hooked!
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