The Expressive Eye: Fiction and Perception in the Work of Thomas Hardy [Hardcover]

J. B. Bullen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1986

Each of Thomas Hardy's novels is filled with striking visual images -- characters, interior settings, buildings, village scenes, and open tracts of land. These images are all rendered with a vitality and energy immediately recognizable as Hardy's own. In fact, Hardy, whose style owed much to his abilities as a draughtsman, once remarked that he saw his narratives as a series of images. J. B. Bullen explores this fascinating link between the image and the idea in the fiction of Thomas Hardy, and demonstrates how Hardy approached his work from a particular "point of view" which not only determined the lighting, composition, and structure of his literary visual effects, but which also allowed him to express emotions and ideas in the direct, "vividly visible" fashion that is the hallmark of his greatest fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bullen's aim, in which he succeeds impressively, is to demonstrate 'Hardy's literary response to visual effects, or more accurately, his translation of observed phenomena into "visible essences."'...Bullen has provided a model of informed and balanced interdisciplinary criticism."--Nineteenth-Century Literature

"[Bullen's] new study successfully reveals how Hardy used his incredible sensitivity to light, color, perspective, and form to better express meaning and emotions..."--Virginia Quarterly Review

"One of the most rewarding studies of Hardy in the last decade and a half."--Victorian Periodicals Review

About the Author

J. B. Bullen is at University of Reading.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198128584
• ISBN-13: 978-0198128588
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,746,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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