Enjoying 'The Cambridge Companion To Thomas Hardy'

Have currently read what looked like the more mouth-watering articles in this collection:  "The influence of religion, science, and philosophy on Hardy's writings' by Robert Schweik; 'Wessex' by Simon Gatrell; 'Hardy and critical theory' by Peter Widdowson; and 'Thomas Hardy and matters of gender' by Kristin Brady (only halfway through this).  Was always going to lap up the first two articles here, but have more surprisingly almost equally enjoyed the latter two.

What I like most about Schweik's article is the part devoted to the influence of Schopenhauer on Hardy's work (e.g. about the pain of unfulfilled ambition which is inevitably brought about by an immanent/universal and/or circumstantial/situational will that is indifferent to the suffering of any human).  Also currently reading C.H. Salter's 'Good Little Thomas Hardy' which, amongst many other things, also offers a mass of insights about the influence of Schopenhauer on Hardy's work:

Must say that this wonderful book is much heavier than its title suggests, really digging deep into what Hardy's pessimistic/fatalistic view of life actually means.  For example, the reflections on Hardy's view of suicide are not exactly uplifting (but fascinating all the same).

Anyway, back with 'The Cambridge Companion To Thomas Hardy', I became more aware of how Hardy expanded his vision of Wessex as a kind of semi-real/semi-imagined place from his early to later novels through reading Simon Gatrell's 'Wessex'.

As already mentioned, the Peter Widdowson and Kristin Brady articles have been far enjoyable than I would have ever imagined.  This is because both of these writers do build up a good picture of what Thomas Hardy has traditionally meant to many readers e.g. a liberal humanist narrative voice with sometimes exquisite streams of imagery and symbolism running throughout the novels.  As for the deconstruction; postmodernism; feminism etc., this was never going to be my cup of tea, although I must acknowledge that I've found little bits and pieces of this stuff interesting.

And there you go, a very general summary of the Hardy-related reading I've been doing recently. Must write more about C.H. Salter's 'Good Little Thomas Hardy' some time, as it really does dig deep into Hardy's psyche and outlook on life.