Hardyan Illness

Abstract

Hardy’s life-threatening illness of the autumn of 1880 seems a reasonable starting point for an analysis of his experience of illness both personal and fictitious. Bearing in mind, Florence Hardy’s assertion that there is more autobiography in a single poem than in the whole of his fiction, the poem A Wasted Illness merits close consideration. But firstly, what are the facts of this illness? The main source of such limited information, as is available, is The Early Life plus The Collected Letters and one or two items of correspondence written to, or about, Hardy at the time.

To his heartfelt regret, the 40-year-old Hardy recovered from this serious illness to live another 47 years. He continued in the habit of regularly writing poems expressing a preference to be dead rather than alive until the death of Emma in November 1912. It appears that reality of the death of a once well-beloved took the gloss off the psychological need to be a man unborn or at least ‘The Dead Man Walking’ (CP 217).