Thomas Hardy?

Question

Years and years ago, Terence Stamp said he would give five years of his life to write like Hardy. Would you? And if not Hardy, who would it be?

Answer 1

TH was a marvellous story teller and Terence Stamp probably liked that aspect of his writing, Far from the Madding Crowd is one of my all-time favourite films. Perfect casting including Stamp himself. I could see it every year. BUT..... I don't like his style at all especially not his poetry. There is a lovely poem , I think it is called "Under the Waterfall" about a wine glass lost when the lovers tried to wash it after a picnic. The imagery is so memorable but it is disastrous poetry. I have set it as an excercise for students to re-write and had some great results.
Who would I like to be ...Rose Tremaine. If you haven't read her books start with "Restoration" or " Music and Silence". Don't be put off by the historical fiction label.....or....John Updike ( not for his subject matter but his use of language and understanding of what makes people tick)
Unfortunately I can't spare five years.................

Answer 2

Slightly ambiguous question, Thomas Hardy wrote only poetry for the last thirty years of his life from his late fifties onwards, after the publication of the far too dark Jude the Obscure virtually ended his career as a novelist. His poetry is wonderful and it's a pity we only remember him for the films and TV adaptions of his novels which place him in a bygone Victorian age when in fact he is considered one of the more important modern poets in English literature writing throughout and well after WW1.

Answer 3

I think Hardy went on a bit, and his depiction of rural life was (apparently) idealising a world that had already statred to disappear 20 years before Hardy was writing.

I prefer a contemporary writer like Margaret Atwood who crosses genres, has a fantastic imagination, and paints such a vivid picture of what she is describing. Oryx and Crake is SO plausible.

Answer 4

No, Hardy's style is too verbose for my liking. He explains too much without leaving much for the reader. I'd give anything to write like Katherine Mansfield. Of course she writes a different genre altogether, but it is incredible how economical she is with words and yet subtle and expressive, especially in The Fly.

Answer 5

No. Hardy is good but not really my style. For the 'classics'. I admire Wilkie Collins and of, course, Tolstoy. With regard to 'moderns'. I admitre the writing of Umberto Eco , the earlier books of John Fowles and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Answer 6

Well, at 64 I may not have many years left to give. But if I could write as well as Joseph Conrad, Walker Percy or William Faulkner, I'd be more than willing to part with a few anyway.

Answer 7

The Return of the Native is absolutely beautiful - although if you read the notes in some of the educational editions, the original ending and what happens to Diggory Venn (which the publisher made Hardy change) is much more plausible.

Answer 8

I would like to write like the environmental writer James MacFarlane, and the fiction writers Robert B. Parker, Peter Cameron and Patricia Duncker

Answer 9

I think Hardy was a great author. he wrote so well you could really put ypur self in the scene. I have a First edition of his (Leatherbound) of "Tess of the Durbervilles".

Answer 10

J R R Tolkien; but it isn't going to happen. Every time I read a review that compares an author to Tolkien, I'm always disappointed.