The Decline of the Goddess: Nature, Culture, and Women in Thomas Hardy's Fiction

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This timely book treats Hardy's recurring use of one of the major informing myths of Western culturethat of a collision between a solar god and an earth goddess. Stave uses a chronological examination of Hardy's Wessex novels to highlight the author's evolving consciousness of the connections among patriarchy, Christianity, sexism, and classism. From the gentle affirmation of Far From the Madding Crowd to the grim Jude the Obscure, Stave paints a world in which the goddess figures die out, displaced by messianic gods, and a Pagan worldview gives way to a world devoid of spiritual meaning.

Reviews

It is a forceful discussion built on contemporary critical precepts and is recommeneded to advanced readers of Hardy, the Victorian novel, and women's of gender studies scholars. Helpful chapter notes. All academic collections.-Choice
"It is a forceful discussion built on contemporary critical precepts and is recommeneded to advanced readers of Hardy, the Victorian novel, and women's of gender studies scholars. Helpful chapter notes. All academic collections."-Choice

Author Bio

SHIRLEY A. STAVE is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Center-Waukesha County.