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), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1914

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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 …

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2458 words

Citation: White, Adam. "Satires of Circumstance". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2242, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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