Hardy: An Overview

47 The bibliography proper is as unreliable as the introduction! inaccuracies in the descriptions of first editions abound, the order followed is neither that of composition nor that of publication , probably because Mr. Collie declares (p. 20) that some dates are not known! Smith, Elder 3/6 reprints of the five novels issued by the firm are invented by Mr. Collie and so is a sixshilling edition of A Life's Morning. The few tables, which could have been extremely useful, are marred by wrong dates« New Grub Street surely did not appear in French in 1911, nor was the French translation of Demos issued by Hachette in 1888. In order to be of interest, a discussion of Gissing's earnings must be based on reliable figures, and Mr. Collie's are often wrong« how could Gissing choose to sell the copyright of Thyrza for £100 in 1887, then sell it again to the same firm for £10 in 1891? Who will believe that Lawrence & Bullen bought the British rights for Born in Exile for £110.10 in I896? Why are some Colonial editions listed and others - the Petherick and Robertson editions in particular - ignored? Even when he has seen a document, Mr. Collie is not invariably able to understand its nature ι thus when he writes that "the corrected proofsheets of the English edition [of Our Friend the Charlatan] or rather the corrected serial pages, are in the possession of Mme D. le [sic] Mallier," he refers to The Rediscovery of Ge orge Gissing (197l) and implies that John Spiers and I were wrong.. The truth is that these proofs are page proofs; the novel was never serialized. Innuendoes of this kind are not infrequent. It is curious that the names of such Gissing scholars and collectors as Jacob Korg, John Spiers, and C. C. Köhler appear in the text but not in the index. Whatever the standards of reviewing adopted, such a book will not do. It is a pretentious, inaccurate production against which all potential users should be warned. Université de Lille Pierre Coustillas 2. Hardy ι An Overview Desmond Hawkins. Hardy1 Novelist and Poet (NYi Barnes & Noble, 1976). $10.00. Mr. Hawkins's Hardy 1 Novelist and Poet combines the virtues of insight, clarity, truth, and conciseness - not always found together . A bibliography by Gerber and Davis summarizes 3153 books and articles about Hardy up to 1969. Since then the flood has not abated. Beyond reading Hardy's novels; poems, The Dynasts, his letters that were not destroyed, and his autobiography (published as by his second wife), where can one find authentic, enlightening , up-to-date, time-saving statements summarizing what professors teaching Hardy's works and their students need to know without having to read a somewhat discordant variety of biographical and critical works? The answer is in Hardy as presented by Mr. Hawkins, who wrote with a triple authority, as an inhabitant of Thomas Hardy's "Wessex" for thirty years, a man of wide reading and learning (as his book shows), and Vice-President of the Thomas Hardy Society of England. 48 Mr. Hawkins's "Foreward" states his intention» "to bring within a critical and interpretative framework the whole of Hardy's formidable creation in prose and verse, and to associate with it as much biographical and historical material as the reader may need to give depth and context to ... a comprehensive appraisal." Chapters extract from Hardy's autobiography what is essential to understanding the novelist's life, mind, and art. Hawkins illuminates Hardy's meaning and purpose in his novels, with special attention to Tess and Jude; he analyzes Hardy's thought and feeling as revealed in his major poems and The Dynasts. Fpr those who have not read all Hardy's works, he provides in an appendix a synopsis for each novel. The book includes eleven black-and-white illustrations and a bibliography of forty-two books from which Mr. Hawkins drew significant material. Hawkins's style is a model of clarity, simple enough for a schoolboy to understand, yet colorful and precise. In contrast with a mass of more or less irresponsible conjecture, for instance, the hullabaloo about Hardy's alleged affair with...