Rosemarie Morgan - Yale University. Keynote Speaker.

Professor Rosemarie Morgan is the current President of the Thomas Hardy Association and
the Vice President of the Thomas Hardy Society. She is the Editor of the Thomas Hardy
Association’s publications and the Director of The Thomas Hardy Association Resources,
Thomas Hardy Association News Updates, Thomas Hardy Association Map of Wessex. She
is the Editorial Consultant to Rivista di Studi Vittoriani, and “Years Work” essayist for
Victorian Poetry.


Professor Morgan has published the holograph manuscript of Far From the Madding Crowd.
She has also published scholarly essays on Charlotte Bronte, Toni Morrison, Mary Chestnut
and the women writers of the American Frontier. Her major works include Women and
Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy (1988), Cancelled Words: Reconsidering Thomas
Hardy (1992) and Student Companion to Thomas Hardy (2006).
Rosemarie Morgan earned her Ph.D from The University of St. Andrews, UK, in 1983. She
was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at
St. Andrews. She has also served as a Visiting Distinguished Professor at The University of
British Columbia, Canada and Kansai University, Osaka, Japan. She was a Professor of
English at Yale University.

It would be audacious to assess her scholarship without reading at least one of her books. So I
picked up her "Student Companion to Thomas Hardy" (2007). By the time I finished reading her
book, I could tell that I had rediscovered a new Thomas Hardy. The man, whose literary career
was unmatched, had an equally interesting and unique life. Prof. Morgan has been insightful
enough to begin the chapters with some interesting stories which decorated the writing career of
the Great Old Man. These informative yet interesting stories can only increase our urge to
explore the life and works of Hardy. However it is not Hardy, the novelist who singlehandedly
reigns in these chapters. His poems are given utmost care by the writer. You cannot call Hardy
only a novelist. A person of his calibre can also produce poetry which is thoughtful,
contemplative, sometimes melancholic, yet never jarring. 

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