THE THOMAS HARDY ASSOCIATION
LINKS
| A 32 |
DIRECTOR: ROBERT SCHWEIK
© 1998-2004
THOMAS HARDY'S WORLD
DESCRIPTION:
Address: http://www.gettysburg.edu/english/hardy/
Contact: Suzanne
Johnson Flynn (sflynn@cc.gettysburg.edu)
Date: 07/01/04
This site is the product of undergraduate seminars jointly taught at
Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, and Dickinson colleges in
Pennsylvania in the fall of 1996. It has not changed substantially since then. The site is arranged in two main sub-pages:
"About Hardy's World" provides
a brief statement about the origin and purposes of the site as well as links to the syllabi of the three seminars. "Enter Hardy's World" gives access to pages headed "Novels," "Short
Fiction," "Poetry," "The Life,"
"The Land," and "Contexts." Of these, "The Life" consists of an illustrated biographical timetable and "Novels" provides a dated list of titles with associated pictures and essays. The other pages contain commentaries on Hardy's writings--e.g., "Thomas Hardy and the Victorian Short Story"--as well as essays on such topics as "Marriage Laws and The Woodlanders," "Thomas Hardy and Agriculture," "Images of Masculinity," "Thomas Hardy and Philosophy," and "Thomas Hardy's Romantic Poetry." In addition, there is a "Related Web Sites" page which provides links to eight remote
sites, and another, "Resources," which is planned to contain a selective bibliography presently not available.
COMMENT:
The "Life" and "Novels" sections are notable for the many pictures they provide. The essays, written primarily by undergraduate students, though some by faculty, are signed and often include a brief bibliography. They are usually quite short--between four and eight paragraphs is the norm; for the most part, they attempt quick overviews of the topics with which they deal, or brief critical or historical studies of aspects of individual works. Not surprisingly, they sometimes betray an undergraduate awkwardness in style, a want of originality or sophistication in analysis, and/or a lack of thoroughness in research, though they are generally accurate in matters of fact. The few faculty contributions are written incisively, but these, too, tend to be very brief: one, "Hardy and the Creation of Wessex," runs to nine paragraphs with a six-item bibliography, but some others are shorter, with no documentation.
Of the eight remote links provided by the "Related Web Sites" page, one is no longer open; all others are described and evaluated at this TTHA site; for significant weaknesses in two of those sites, see the comments in Links A 25 (Thomas Hardy On-Line Society) and C 2 (Data Text Library/Bibliomania).
Sources of individual pictures are not specified, but a list of the books from which pictures were derived is provided. The pictures themselves are usually identified by the name of what they actually portray, and associations with elements in Hardy's writings--though not accompanied by quotations or other information--are generally made with care.
With respect to both the e-texts linked at this site and the pictures provided on it, see our GENERAL CAUTION.
SUMMARY:
This site consists largely of very short undergraduate essays, most briefly documented, covering a broad range of topics. It is particularly valuable for the many pictures it provides. For specific subjects treated in the essays, see the Links Index.