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COPYRIGHT 2002 ELT Press
Rosemarie Morgan and Richard Nemesvari, eds. Human Shows: Essays in Honour of Michael Millgate. New Haven: The Hardy Association Press, 2000. 162 pp. $36.00
THOMAS HARDY'S preeminent biographer, editor, and critic, Michael Millgate, has inspired this Festschrift as a tribute to him by some of the leading Hardy scholars of our time. This is a provocative, lively volume that touches on both explored and unexplored facets of Hardy's life, thought, philosophy, and literary associations. The rationale for these essays is set forth in the editors' preface. Hardy's personal writings offer a rather "cooked" picture of reality: Hardy was exceptionally reticent, rarely revealing his more immediate feelings. Hence some of the more unusual approaches taken by the authors of this volume to penetrate that facade: delving into the banalities of his household affairs, meals, beloved pets, and unbeloved servants; poring over old newspaper clippings; considering Hardy in relation to the temperance movement; or probing topics so diverse as, on the one hand, Hardy's use of biblical psalms, and, on the other, his manipulation of sex-role crossovers in his fiction. The result is a volume that provides a wide variety of insights into Hardy's complex personality, and the...
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