| Description |
1 online resource (ix, 234 pages) |
| Contents |
'The Road to Norcombe Hill': Hardy's Musical Evolution -- 'Silent Workings of the Invisible Hand': Hardy's Metaphysical Evolution -- The 'Spider's Web': Metaphysics into 'Music Drama' -- 'The Plucked Harp String': Desire, Courtship Ritual and the Debate Concerning Speech Theory -- A Tale of 'Tragical Possibilities': Music and the Birth of Consciousness in The Return of the Native -- 'A Tragedy Appropriate for its Time': Music and the Story of a 'Man of Character' -- 'All Creation Groaning': A Deaf Ear to Music in Jude the Obscure |
| Summary |
Following the success of Far From the Madding Crowd, in 1876 Hardy began a campaign of reading through which he sought to give his novels the intellectual weight necessary to prevent him from being labelled a rural writer. Through scholarly analysis of Hardy's Notebooks, letters and contemporary periodicals, this book explores Hardy's engagement with the Victorian intellectual world, particularly the debates concerning evolution, free will and determinism, mesmerism and musical aesthetics. The 1870s witnessed an enormous interest in musical theory: it was during this period that the ideas of Arthur Schopenhaur and Richard Wagner were popularised in this country, whilst domestic luminaries such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer focussed on the status, origins, and function of music. This book contextualises Hardy's novels within such debates, offering fascinating new insights into his employment of musical motifs to reflect shifting attitudes to human consciousness and the depiction and transmission of emotions. The Hardy who emerges, is not the 'good little Thomas Hardy' so patronisingly dismissed by Henry James, but one of the most innovative and experimental artists of his day |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-225) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Knowledge -- Music
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Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Fictional works
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Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Philosophy
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Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Aesthetics
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| SUBJECT |
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 fast |
| Subject |
Music -- England -- 19th century -- History and criticism
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Music and literature -- History -- 19th century
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Aesthetics, British -- 19th century.
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Metaphysics in literature.
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Music in literature.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
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Aesthetics
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Aesthetics, British
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Criticism and interpretation
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Metaphysics in literature
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Music
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Music and literature
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Music in literature
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Philosophy
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England
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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Music
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780230508019 |
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0230508014 |
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