THE THOMAS HARDY ASSOCIATION
LINKS

DIRECTOR: ROBERT SCHWEIK
© 2000-2003

ONLINE LITERARY CRITICISM--THOMAS HARDY

DESCRIPTION:

Address: http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/
Contact: Ken Irwin (crit-url@ipl.org)
Date: 04/01/03

This "Online Literary Criticism Collection," which includes a sub-page on Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), is a project of the "Internet Public Library," based at the University of Michigan School of Information. It "primarily seeks to collect evaluative or explanatory writings about works of literature" on the WWW that meet scholarly standards described in a statement headed "Collection Development Policy." The Hardy sub-page is divided into four main parts:

1. "Criticism about Thomas Hardy," which, at present, provides one link to the "Thomas Hardy Resource Library" (see our A 22), one to a summary of an article on "Hardy and the Imagery of Place" in the "Northern Light" "Special Collection" (see our C 29), and one to an article titled "Back to the Future: Hardy, Poetry,Theory, Aporia" (see our B 26).
2. "Biographical sites about Thomas Hardy," which has links to three remote sites all described and evaluated from this TTHA site.
3. "Other sites about Thomas Hardy," which supplies links, with brief descriptive notes, to four remote sites related to Hardy, including this TTHA site.
4. Links to two sites containing criticisms of The Woodlanders and Jude the Obscure, and another link to a summary of an article on "Barbara and the House of Grebe" in the "Northern Light" "Special Collection" (see our C 29).

COMMENT:

One link provided in "Other sites about Thomas Hardy" is to an article that concerns eighteenth-century writers and has nothing whatever to do with Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). In other respects, the links and brief descriptive notes are relevant, but the division between "Criticism about Thomas Hardy" and "Other sites about Thomas Hardy" is meaningless: some sites in the latter category--e.g. this TTHA site and Thomas Hardy's World--provide extensive criticism. For evaluations of the two two sites providing criticisms of The Woodlanders and Jude the Obscure, see our Link A 83, "Hardy's Romanticism in The Woodlanders," and Link 84, "Romanticism in Jude the Obscure."

SUMMARY:

Although the Internet Public Library staff has a laudable goal to provide a collection of online literary criticism, and a stated policy that what it selects will meet minimum scholarly standards, the material actually provided on the Hardy sub-page, while in part appropriate, unfortunately is both not well organized and incomplete; furthermore, it includes one link that is entirely irrelevant. For other sites providing criticism of Hardy's writings, see under "Commentary and Criticism" in the Links Index; for sources of biographical information, see under "Biographies and Timelines."

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