The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy

One of the literary worlds great deceptions was perpetrated when Thomas Hardy wrote his Life in secret for publication after his death as an official biography. Since the true circumstances of its composition have been known The Early Life and Later Years of Thomas Hardy, published over the name of Florence Emily Hardy, has frequently been referred to as Hardys autobiography. But this is not the whole truth: Florence altered much of what Hardy meant to appear in his biography. Through careful examination of pre- publication texts, Michael Millgate has retrieved the text as it stood at the time of Hardys final revision. For the first time The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy can be read as a true work of autobiography - an addition to the Hardy canon.