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閱讀哈代 Thomas Hardy在诗海的作品!!! | |
哈代Hardy，Thomas(1840-06-02，多塞特郡多切斯特～1928-01-11，多切斯特的麥剋斯門)。
英國作傢。
生平 16歲開始做建築學徒，後為建築師助理，司教堂修復。建築論文曾獲英國皇傢建築學會奬。有音樂、繪畫及語言才能，通古希臘文及拉丁文。在哲學、文學和自然科學方面有廣博學識。受當時科學重大發現進化論影響，在宗教方面成為懷疑論者。25歲寫詩，1866年開始小說創作，第一部小說《窮人與貴婦》未出版。隨後創作了一部以愛情、陰謀、兇殺、偵破為內容的情節小說《計出無奈》，出版後受到肯定性評價。1874年與愛瑪·拉文納結婚。在愛瑪的鼓勵下，連續創作了《緑林蔭下》、《一雙湛藍的秋波》、《遠離塵囂》。《遠離塵囂》一書以清新自然的風格和鮮明生動的人物形象獲得極大成功，他從此放棄建築行業，走上專業創作道路。從1869年至19世紀末近30年間，共創作長篇小說14部、中短篇小說近50篇。小說創作輟筆後，將早年詩作匯集成册，並繼續詩歌及詩劇創作，直至逝世。
創作 哈代的小說以他所生長生活的英格蘭西南部地區為背景，富有濃重的地方色彩。他將這些小說大體分為3類：性格與環境的小說、羅曼史與幻想的小說和精於結構的小說。其中以第一類最為重要。屬於此類的長篇小說有《緑林蔭下》、《遠離塵囂》、《還鄉》、《卡斯特橋市長》、《林居人》、《德伯傢的苔絲》、《無名的裘德》。一般認為它們是哈代思想、藝術上最成熟的作品，其中又以悲劇故事《德伯傢的苔絲》和《無名的裘德》最為傑出。前者寫貧苦美麗的擠奶女工苔絲因年輕無知而失身於富傢惡少亞雷·德伯，受盡精神上和物質上的煎熬，最後失去自己真心愛戀的安璣·剋萊，悲憤絶望之中，殺死亞雷，坦然走上絞架。後一部小說寫貧苦善良的孤兒裘德·範立奮發自學欲赴高等學府深造，但無入門之道。他與志趣相投的表妹淑·布萊德赫雙雙擺脫法定配偶而自由結合，但為社會所排斥，流浪街頭，最後傢破人亡。這些作品表現了時代的先進思想，嚮維多利亞時代舊有習俗觀念和制度提出嚴正挑戰，在當時遭到非議。他的性格與環境的小說，大多是通過描述男女主人公一生的奮鬥、追求、幻滅，反映人對美好生活和理想的追求，以及在此過程中人與環境(包括人與人之間)的劇烈衝突，因而富有廣泛深刻的社會意義和哲理。屬於羅曼史與幻想的小說，大致包括《一雙湛藍的秋波》、《司號長》、《塔中戀人》、《意中人》，側重描繪以浪漫愛情為主要內容的人生圖景。精於結構的小說有《計出無奈》、《埃塞貝妲的婚事》、《冷淡女子》等。在這類作品中，哈代着意進行了小說結構技巧方面的實驗，從中可以看出哈代在小說創作過程中所作的多方面探索和嘗試，以及他與當時流行的自然主義、新浪漫主義潮流的聯繫。後兩類作品的思想主題往往也與性格與環境的小說相通，而且更加富有理想主義色彩，其中也不乏既引人入勝，又發人深省的佳作。他的中短篇小說，或嘲諷世事人生，或探索心理活動，或記述浪漫傳奇。其中如《三怪客》等，已躋入世界中短篇小說佳作之林。哈代小說風格多變，題材廣泛，內容豐富。他因在小說創作上所取得的突出成就而成為英國19世紀後期的代表作傢。
哈代作為詩人，也頗有聲譽。1898～1928年，他共出版8部近千首短詩，包括《威塞剋斯詩集》、《今昔之歌》、《時間的笑柄》、《環境的諷刺》、《幻覺的瞬間》、《中晚期抒情詩》、《人性面面觀》、《晚歲之歌》，其中包括感懷詩、哲理詩、愛情詩、詠物詩、諷刺詩、戰爭詩、悼亡詩等等。他還創作了兩部詩劇《列王》和《康沃爾王後的著名悲劇》。哈代的詩冷峻、深刻、細膩、優美，言簡意賅，自成一格，較他的小說更具有現代意識。詩劇《列王》是哈代思想藝術集大成之佳作。它以拿破侖戰爭為題材，囊括了歐洲與戰爭有關的種種地區和場所，出場人數達數百人。它屬於不供演出用的案頭劇，氣勢宏偉，語言優美，運用無韻詩、有韻詩及散文3種文體形式。哈代憑藉戰爭進程中的各個重要環節，進一步深入闡發了他已往在小說和短詩中表達的思想。這部詩劇是作者近60年文學創作的深化和總結。
影響 哈代晚年因在詩歌小說創作上的突出成就而獲得巨大榮譽。逝世後，葬於倫敦威斯敏斯特詩人角，其心髒則按本人遺願葬於故鄉的斯廷斯福德教堂墓地。他寫的傳記和一些文學論文、文學筆記以及書信陸續出版。他在英國和世界各國具有相當大的影響。中國從20～30年代開始陸續介紹、翻譯哈代的詩及小說作品，他已成為中國讀者熟悉的英國作傢之一。
主要詩集有《韋塞剋斯詩集》、《今昔詩集》、《時光的笑柄》、《早期與晚期抒情詩》、詩劇《列王》等。
Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England. His father worked as a stonemason and local builder. His mother was ambitious and well read, supplementing his formal education, which ended at the age of 16 when he became apprenticed to John Hicks, a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862. There he enrolled as a student at King’s College London. He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association. He never truly felt at home in London and when he returned five years later to Dorset he decided to dedicate himself to writing.
In 1870, while on an architectural mission to restore the parish church of St Juliot in Cornwall, Hardy met and fell in love with Emma Lavinia Gifford, whom he married in 1874. Although he later became estranged from his wife, her death in 1912 had a traumatic effect on him. He made a trip to Cornwall to revisit places linked with their courtship; his Poems 1912-13 explore his grief. In 1914, Hardy married his secretary Florence Dugdale, 40 years his junior, whom he had met in 1905. However, Hardy remained preoccupied with Emma's sudden death, and tried to overcome his remorse by writing poetry.
Burial site of Thomas Hardy's heartHardy fell ill with pleurisy in December 1927 and died in January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed. His funeral, on 16 January at Westminster Abbey, proved a controversial occasion: Hardy, his family and friends had wished him to be buried at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. However, his executor, Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, insisted he be placed in the abbey's Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner.
Shortly after Hardy's death, the executors of his estate burnt his letters and notebooks. Twelve records survived, one of them containing notes and extracts of newspaper stories from the 1820s. Research into these provided insight into how Hardy kept track of them and how he used them in his later work.
Hardy's work was admired by many authors, amongst them D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. The writer Robert Graves, in his autobiography Goodbye to All That, recalls meeting Hardy in Dorset in the early 1920s. Hardy received Graves and his newly married wife warmly, and was encouraging about the younger author's work.
In 1910, Hardy was awarded the Order of Merit.
Hardy's cottage at Bockhampton and Max Gate in Dorchester are owned by the National Trust.
Religious beliefs
Hardy’s idea of fate in life gave way to his philosophical struggle with God. Although Hardy’s faith remained intact, the irony and struggles of life led him to question God and His traditional meaning in the Christian sense.
“ The Christian god-the external personality-has been replaced by the intelligence of the First Cause…the replacement of the old concept of god as all-powerful by a new concept of universal consciousness. The ‘tribal god, man-shaped, fiery-faced and tyrannous’ is replaced by the ‘unconscious will of the Universe’ which progressively grows aware of itself and ‘ultimately, it is to be hoped, sympathetic’. ”
Hardy's religious life seems to have mixed agnosticism and spiritism. Once, when asked in correspondence by a clergyman about the question of reconciling the horrors of pain with the goodness of a loving God, Hardy replied,
“ Mr. Hardy regrets that he is unable to offer any hypothesis which would reconcile the existence of such evils as Dr. Grosart describes with the idea of omnipotent goodness. Perhaps Dr. Grosart might be helped to a provisional view of the universe by the recently published Life of Darwin, and the works of Herbert Spencer, and other agnostics. ”
Nevertheless, Hardy frequently conceived of and wrote about supernatural forces that control the universe, more through indifference or caprice than any firm will. Also, Hardy showed in his writing some degree of fascination with ghosts and spirits. Despite these sentiments, Hardy retained a strong emotional attachment to the Christian liturgy and church rituals, particularly as manifested in rural communities, that had been such a formative influence in his early years. Some attributed the bleak outlook of many of his novels as reflecting his view of the absence of God. A sentence found in his Tess of the d'Urbervilles neatly sums up Hardy's philisophical stance:
“ The inherent will to enjoy and the circumstantial will against enjoyment ”
In Far From the Madding Crowd, Oak’s entire flock, and livelihood, dies. For Oak, being a simple farmer with nothing to his name, to encounter such a loss is a tragedy wherein Hardy wants his readers to consider the role of God in this type of situation along with the universe’s cruelty. Biblical references can be found woven throughout many of Hardy’s novels as he became friends with a Dorchester minister, Hourace Moule. Moule also influenced Hardy’s point of view by introducing him to scientific studies and ideas that questioned the literal meaning of the Bible. These new ideas, along with Darwinism, and a series of unsettling events in Hardy’s life may be the reason for his pessimistic attitude that is perceived by many critics and readers alike.
Novels
Hardy's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher and Hardy destroyed the manuscript so only parts of the novel remain. He was encouraged to try again by his mentor and friend, Victorian poet and novelist George Meredith. Desperate Remedies (1871) and Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) were published anonymously. In 1873 A Pair of Blue Eyes, a story drawing on Hardy's courtship of his first wife, was published under his own name.
Hardy said that he first introduced Wessex in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), his next (and first important) novel. It was successful enough for Hardy to give up architectural work and pursue a literary career. Over the next twenty-five years Hardy produced ten more novels.
The Hardys moved from London to Yeovil and then to Sturminster Newton, where he wrote The Return of the Native (1878). In 1885, they moved for a last time, to Max Gate, a house outside Dorchester designed by Hardy and built by his brother. There he wrote The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), the last of which attracted criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of a "fallen woman" and was initially refused publication. Its subtitle, A Pure Woman: Faithfully Presented, was intended to raise the eyebrows of the Victorian middle-classes.
Jude the Obscure, published in 1895, met with even stronger negative outcries from the Victorian public for its frank treatment of sex, and was often referred to as "Jude the Obscene". Heavily criticized for its apparent attack on the institution of marriage, the book caused further strain on Hardy's already difficult marriage because Emma Hardy was concerned that Jude the Obscure would be read as being autobiographical. Some booksellers sold the novel in brown paper bags, and the Bishop of Wakefield is reputed to have burnt a copy.
Despite this criticism, Hardy had become a celebrity in English literature by the 1900s, with several blockbuster novels under his belt, yet he felt disgust at the public reception of two of his greatest works and gave up writing novels altogether. Several critics have commented, however, that there was very little left for Hardy to write about, having creatively exhausted the increasingly fatalistic tone of his novels.
Literary themes
Although he wrote a great deal of poetry, mostly unpublished until after 1898, Hardy is best remembered for the series of novels and short stories he wrote between 1871 and 1895. His novels are set in the imaginary world of Wessex, a large area of south and south-west England, using the name of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that covered the area. Hardy was part of two worlds; on the one hand he had a deep emotional bond with the rural way of life which he had known as a child, but on the other he was aware of the changes which were under way, and the current social problems from the innovations in agriculture - he captured the epoch just before the railways and the industrial revolution changed the English countryside - to the unfairness and hypocrisy of Victorian sexual behaviour.
Hardy critiques certain social constraints that hindered the lives of those living in the 19th century. Considered a Victorian Realist writer, Hardy examines the social constraints that are part of the Victorian status quo. These rules hinder the lives of all involved and ultimately lead to a life of unhappiness. In Two on a Tower, Hardy seeks to take a stand against these rules and sets up a story against the backdrop of social structure by creating a romantic story of love that crosses the boundaries of class. The reader is forced to consider the option of disposing of the conventions set up for love. 19th century society enforces the conventions and societal pressure ensures conformity. Swithin St Cleeve is idyllic against social constraints. He is a meaningful, unique individual set up against the dictating confinements of the conventions of social structure.
“ In a novel structured around contrasts, the main opposition is between Swithin St Cleeve and Lady Viviette Constantine, who are presented as binary figures in a series of ways: aristocratic and lower class, youthful and mature, single and married, fair and dark, religious and agnostic…she [Lady Viviette Constantine] is also deeply conventional, absurdly wishing to conceal their marriage until Swithin has achieved social status through his scientific work, which gives rise to uncontrolled ironies and tragic-comic misunderstandings (Harvey 108). ”
Hardy’s stories take into consideration the events of life and their effects. Fate plays a big role as the thematic basis for many of his novels. Characters are constantly encountering crossroads, which are symbolic of a point of opportunity and transition. Far From the Madding Crowd tells a tale of lives that are constructed by chance. “Had Bathsheba not sent the valentine, had Fanny not missed her wedding, for example, the story would have taken an entirely different path.” Once things have been put into motion, they will play out. Hardy’s characters are in the grips of too much overwhelming fate.
He paints a vivid picture of rural life in the nineteenth century, with all its joys and suffering, a fatalistic world full of superstition and injustice. His heroes and heroines are often alienated from society and rarely become readmitted into it. He tends to emphasize the impersonal and, generally, negative powers of fate over the mainly working class people he represented in his novels. Hardy exhibits in his books elemental passion, deep instinct, the human will struggling against fatal and ill-comprehended laws, a victim also of unforeseeable change. Tess, for example, ends with some of the most poignant lines in British Literature on this theme:
“ Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d'Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on. ”
In particular, Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure is full of the sense of crisis of the later Victorian period (as witnessed in Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach'). It describes the tragedy of two new social types, Jude Fawley, a working man who attempts to educate himself, and his lover and cousin, Sue Bridehead, who represents the 'new woman' of the 1890s.
His mastery, as both an author and poet, lies in the creation of natural surroundings making discoveries through close observation and acute sensitiveness. He notices the smallest and most delicate details, yet he can also paint vast landscapes of his own Wessex in melancholy or noble moods. (His eye for poignant detail - such as the spreading bloodstain on the ceiling at the end of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and little Jude's suicide note - often came from clippings from newspaper reports of real events).
Poetry
For the full text of several poems, see the External links section
In 1898 Hardy published his first volume of poetry, Wessex Poems, a collection of poems written over 30 years. Hardy claimed poetry as his first love, and published collections until his death in 1928. Although not as well received by his contemporaries as his novels, Hardy's poetry has been applauded considerably in recent years, in part because of the influence on Philip Larkin. However, critically it is still not regarded as highly as his prose.
Most of his poems deal with themes of disappointment in love and life, and mankind's long struggle against indifference to human suffering. Some, like The Darkling Thrush and An August Midnight, appear as poems about writing poetry, because the nature mentioned in them gives Hardy the inspiration to write those. A vein of regret tinges his often seemingly banal themes. His compositions range in style from the three-volume epic closet drama The Dynasts to smaller, and often hopeful or even cheerful ballads of the moment such as the little-known The Children and Sir Nameless, a comic poem inspired by the tombs of the Martyns, builders of Athelhampton.
A few of Hardy's poems, such as The Blinded Bird (a melancholy polemic against the sport of vinkenzetting), display his love of the natural world and his firm stance against animal cruelty, exhibited in his antivivisectionist views and his membership in the RSPCA.
Composers who have set Hardy's text to music include Gerald Finzi, who produced six song-cycles for poems by Hardy, Benjamin Britten, who based his song-cycle Winter Words on Hardy's poetry, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Holst also based one of his last orchestral works, Egdon Heath, on Hardy's work. It is said to be Holst's masterpiece. Composer Lee Hoiby's setting of "The Darkling Thrush" became the basis of the multimedia opera Darkling and Timothy Takach, a graduate of St. Olaf, has also put "The Darkling Thrush" into arrangement for a 4-part mixed choir.
Works
Prose
Hardy divided his novels and collected short stories into three classes:
Novels of Character and Environment
The Poor Man and the Lady (1867, unpublished and lost)
Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
The Return of the Native (1878)
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
The Woodlanders (1887)
Wessex Tales (1888, a collection of short stories)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
Life's Little Ironies (1894, a collection of short stories)
Jude the Obscure (1895)
Romances and Fantasies
A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
The Trumpet-Major (1880)
Two on a Tower (1882)
A Group of Noble Dames (1891, a collection of short stories)
The Well-Beloved (1897) (first published as a serial from 1892).
Novels of Ingenuity
Desperate Remedies (1871)
The Hand of Ethelberta (1876)
A Laodicean (1881)
Hardy also produced a number of minor tales and a collaborative novel, The Spectre of the Real (1894). An additional short-story collection, beyond the ones mentioned above, is A Changed Man and Other Tales (1913). His works have been collected as the 24-volume Wessex Edition (1912-1913) and the 37-volume Mellstock Edition (1919-1920). His largely self-written biography appears under his second wife's name in two volumes from 1928-1930, as The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840-1891 and The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892-1928, now published in a critical one-volume edition as The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy, edited by Michael Millgate (1984).
Poetry (not a comprehensive list)
The Photograph (1890)
Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)
Poems of the Past and Present (1901)
The Dynasts, Part 1 (1904)
The Dynasts, Part 2 (1906)
The Dynasts, Part 3 (1908)
Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses (1909)
Satires of Circumstance (1914)
Moments of Vision (1917)
Collected Poems (1919, part of the Mellstock Edition of his novels and poems)
Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses (1922)
Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925)
Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres (1928, published posthumously)
Drama
The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall (1923)
Locations in novels
Berkshire is North Wessex, Devon is Lower Wessex, Dorset is South Wessex, Somerset is Outer or Nether Wessex, Wiltshire is Mid-Wessex,
Bere Regis is King's-Bere of Tess, Bincombe Down cross roads is the scene of the military execution in A Melancholy Hussar. It is a true story, the deserters from the German Legion were shot in 1801 and are recorded in the parish register. Bindon Abbey is where Clare carried her. Bournemouth is Sandbourne of Hand of Ethelberta and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Bridport is Port Bredy, Charborough House and its folly tower at 50°46′38.75″N, 2°6′7.09″W is the model for Welland House in the novel Two on a Tower. Corfe Castle is the Corvsgate-Castle of Hand of Ethelberta. Cranborne Chase is The Chase scene of Tess's seduction. (Note - Bowerchalke on Cranborne Chase at 51°0′30.75″N, 1°59′18.30″W was the film location for the great fire in John Schlesinger's 1967 film Far from the Madding Crowd.)
Dorchester, Dorset is Casterbridge, the scene of Mayor of Casterbridge. Dunster Castle in Somerset is Castle De Stancy of A Laodicean. Fordington moor is Durnover moor and fields. Greenhill Fair near Bere Regis is Woodbury Hill Fair, Lulworth Cove is Lulstead Cove, Marnhull is Marlott of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Melbury House near Evershot is Great Hintock Court in A Group of Noble Dames. Minterne is Little Hintock, Owermoigne is Nether Moynton in Wessex Tales.
Piddlehinton and Piddle Trenthide are the Longpuddle of A Few Crusted Characters. Puddletown Heath, Moreton Heath, Tincleton Heath and Bere Heath are Egdon Heath. Poole is Havenpool in Life's Little Ironies. Portland is the scene of The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved. Puddletown is Weatherbury in Far from the Madding Crowd, River Frome valley is the scene of Talbothays dairy in Tess. Salisbury is Melchester in On the Western Circuit, Life's Little Ironies and Jude the Obscure etc. Shaftesbury is Shaston in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. Sherborne is Sherton-Abbas, Sherborne Castle is home of Lady Baxby in A Group of Noble Dames. Stonehenge is the scene of Tess's apprehension. Sutton Poyntz is Overcombe. Swanage is the Knollsea of Hand of Ethelberta. Taunton is known as Toneborough in both Hardy's novels and poems (see http://www.wessex.me.uk/taunton.html). Wantage is Alfredston, of Jude the Obscure. Fawley, Berkshire is Marygreen of Jude the Obscure. Weyhill is Weydon Priors, Weymouth is Budmouth Regis, the scene of Trumpet Major & portions of other novels; Winchester is Wintoncester where Tess was executed. Wimborne is Warborne of Two on a Tower. Wolfeton House, near Dorchester is the scene of The Lady Penelope in a Group of Noble Dames. Woolbridge old Manor House, close to Wool station, is the scene of Tess's confession and honeymoon.
In other literature
Hardy provides the springboard for D. H. Lawrence's Study of Thomas Hardy (1936). Though this work became a platform for Lawrence's own developing philosophy rather than a more standard literary study, the influence of Hardy's treatment of character and Lawrence's own response to the central metaphysic behind many of Hardy's novels helped significantly in the development of The Rainbow (1915, suppressed) and Women in Love (1920, private publication).
Notes
^ Chosen Poems of Thomas Hardy, ed. James Gibson, Macmillam Education Ltd, 1975, p. 9.
^ "Thomas Hardy - the Time-Torn Man", BBC Radio 4, 23 October 2006 (a reading of Claire Tomalin's book of the same name).
^ bbc.co.uk (accessed August 12, 2006)
^ a b bbc.co.uk, (accessed August 12, 2006)
^ Wotton, George. Thomas Hardy: Towards A Materialist Criticism. Lanham,: Rowan & Littlefield, 1985, p. 36.
^ a b Ellman, Richard & O'Clair, Robert (eds.) 1988. "Thomas Hardy" in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Norton, New York.
^ (http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kennedy_lfpd_9/0,9130,1489987-,00.html
^ Thomas Hardy: The Tragedy of a Life Without Christ
^ ("Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy: Introduction." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 153. Gale Group, Inc., 2005. eNotes.com. 2006. 12 Mar, 2008
^ Words Words Words, La Spiga Languages, 2003 p.482
^ A Short History of English Literature, Emile Legouis, Oxford Clarendon Press, 1934
^ Herbert N. Schneidau. Waking Giants: The Presence of the Past in Modernism. Retrieved on 2008-04-16. (Google Books)
References
Armstrong, Tim. "Player Piano: Poetry and Sonic Modernity" in Modernism/Modernity 14.1 (January 2007), 1-19.
Blunden, Edmund. Thomas Hardy. New York: St. Martin's, 1942.
Brennecke, Jr., Ernest. The Life of Thomas Hardy. New York: Greenberg, 1925.
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