Illuminates various aspects of Thomas Hardy's life, including his family background, his fumbling self-education as a poet, his difficult relations with his fir... » 

Illuminates various aspects of Thomas Hardy's life, including his family background, his fumbling self-education as a poet, his difficult relations with his first wife and hers with his family, his sexual infatuations, his secret collaborations with aspiring women writers, his clandestine composition of his own official biography, and more. «