Claudia FitzHerbert

No one could match Tess, to Thomas Hardy’s dismay

Hardy’s 38-year marriage to Emma Gifford was notoriously acrimonious; but even his much younger second wife, Florence, never seemed to measure up to his fictional heroines

Thomas Hardy’s first wife, Emma Gifford, in her youth. [Alamy]
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  • Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses

    Paula Byrne

    William Collins, pp. 656, £25

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