Women and sexuality in the novels of Thomas Hardy /

This revisionary reading centers on Hardy's views of female sexuality from a study of five of his major heroines in five novels beginning with Elfride Swancourt in A Pair of Blue Eyes and concluding with Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure, Hardy's last novel. Contrary to contemporary mores, these heroines manifest an open, "unrepressed" and healthy sexuality valued for itself, not just for marriage, until its expression is threatened and crushed by the male society. Thus, Gabriel Oak breaks Bathsheba Everdene's spirit in Far from the Madding Crowd, and their marriage is not a happy ending. According to Morgan, Hardy had to devise tactics to appease "Grundyist" criticism for his use of such revolutionary devices as a primary narrator whose judgments are consistent with the tenor of the whole novel (rather than alternative narrators voicing popular opinions but lacking consistency, an indication of their unacceptability to the writer). This study, whose authority and depth are undeniable, realigns many received opinions on both male and female characters, but given the powerful female presence in Hardy's novels, its feminist viewpoint is long overdue. -J. F. O'Malley, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania