Hardy Women: Mothers, Sisters, Wives, Muses
Thomas Hardy remains one of Britain’s most cherished and widely read authors, his influence on literature and the imagination of his readers unparalleled. Yet, beneath the surface of his novels—where he crafted some of the most compelling and progressive female characters of his time – lies a paradox: Hardy’s own relationships with real women were often fraught with difficulty, disappointment, and emotional complexity.
In this highly innovative book, acclaimed biographer Paula Byrne offers a fresh perspective on Hardy’s life, exploring it through the lens of the women who shaped him—his formidable mother, devoted sisters, first loves, long-suffering wives, and inspiring muses. Through their eyes, we see the man behind the novels, a figure both enthralled by and at odds with the women around him.
Byrne takes readers on a journey through the defining moments of Hardy’s personal and creative life, from his haunting fascination with a public hanging to the tender yet unfulfilled loves that coloured his poetry, and the realities of nineteenth-century working women who, in many ways, mirrored the resilience of his fictional heroines.
Hardy Women reveals how the strength, struggles, and spirit of the real women in Hardy’s world fueled his literary genius. Without their influence—whether as sources of inspiration or sources of pain—his unforgettable female protagonists might never have come to life. Only by understanding these “hardy women” can we truly grasp the depth of Hardy’s imagination, his contradictions, and his enduring legacy as both a novelist and a poet.
This talk is supported by the Thomas Hardy Society.
About the speaker
Paula Byrne is the author of eight highly acclaimed works of non-fiction, including Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses, a 2024 literary highlight in four national newspapers. Her biography The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym was named ‘Book of the Year’ in multiple publications and featured as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, while The Genius of Jane Austen was a New York Times Editors’ Pick. Her bestselling Kick: The True Story of Kick Kennedy was optioned for dramatization by Apple TV+, and she also wrote the tie-in book for the award-winning film Belle. The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, published for the Pride and Prejudice bicentenary, was a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, while Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead explored the aristocratic family that inspired Brideshead Revisited and was serialized in Vanity Fair in the U.S.
Her first top ten bestseller, Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson, was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and nominated for a British Book Award. Byrne has also ventured into fiction with Look to Your Wife (2018) and Mirror Mirror (2020), a historical novel based on the life of Marlene Dietrich, later reissued as Blonde Venus. The Times praised it as “wonderful … a whirl of banquets, massive jewels, sex and death … eye-poppingly funny and thought-provoking,” likening it to The Moon’s a Balloon meets Game of Thrones.