Hardy & Women

[ConnieAnnKirk]

The B&N Classics edition of this novel asks,

"Is Hardy a misogynist?"

What do you think?

~ConnieK

[Laurel]

No more than any other man.

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ConnieK wrote:

The B&N Classics edition of this novel asks,

"Is Hardy a misogynist?"

What do you think?

~ConnieK

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[Everyman]

What makes them ask this question of this novel?

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ConnieK wrote:

The B&N Classics edition of this novel asks,

"Is Hardy a misogynist?"

What do you think?

~ConnieK

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[Juniperus]

I think Michael Henchard is a misogynist, but have no clue as to whether Hardy had a dislike for women. I would have to read Hardy's biography.

[ConnieAnnKirk]

Sometimes the discussion questions at the back of the B&N editions refer back to commentaries the editions also provide.  I don't see a connection here, though.  One commentary is from The Spectator of June 5, 1886; another is by William Dean Howells (1891); another by Joyce Kilmer in The Circus (1921), and still another is by Virginia Woolf (1932).  None of them address treatment of women, per se, in Mayor.

Maybe another reader sees why the question may be asked.

~ConnieK

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Everyman wrote:
What makes them ask this question of this novel?

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ConnieK wrote:

The B&N Classics edition of this novel asks,

"Is Hardy a misogynist?"

What do you think?

~ConnieK

---

---

[Laurel]

The book has two heroines, very different from each other but both strong women who end, at least, nobly. The third woman, the mother, is weak, but she, too, is treated sympathetically.

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ConnieK wrote:

Sometimes the discussion questions at the back of the B&N editions refer back to commentaries the editions also provide. I don't see a connection here, though. One commentary is from The Spectator of June 5, 1886; another is by William Dean Howells (1891); another by Joyce Kilmer in The Circus (1921), and still another is by Virginia Woolf (1932). None of them address treatment of women, per se, in Mayor.

Maybe another reader sees why the question may be asked.

~ConnieK

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Everyman wrote:
What makes them ask this question of this novel?

---

ConnieK wrote:

The B&N Classics edition of this novel asks,

"Is Hardy a misogynist?"

What do you think?

~ConnieK

---

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[ConnieAnnKirk]

I haven't read all of Hardy's work, but I have to say that I find it difficult to think of the author of Tess of the D'Urbervilles as a misogynist.

~ConnieK