Thomas Hardy, Satires of Circumstance

Adam White (The Open University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1914

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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Satires of Circumstance

was published in 1914: it consists of “Lyrics and Reveries”, “Poems of 1912-13”, and “Miscellaneous Pieces”.

Satires

was the fourth collection of Hardy’s verse, and it has become famous for the “Poems of 1912-13”, which are about the death of Hardy’s first wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford, who passed away in November 1912. “Circumstance” is a word that also has important functions throughout Hardy’s novel

A Pair of Blue Eyes

(1873), in which the heroine, Elfride Swancourt, appears to be based on Emma, and where a number of locations from the courtship of Emma and Hardy are visited in the narrative. In the “Poems of 1912-13”, Hardy looks back to his earlier life with Emma, before the distance which came between them in an unhappy marriage.

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2458 words

Citation: White, Adam. "Satires of Circumstance". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2242, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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