The Human Predicament in Hardy’s Novels

Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Was Hardy a Philosopher?....Pages 3-16
The Human Predicament....Pages 17-24
Front Matter....Pages 25-25
Metaphysical Ethics and the Non-Theistic Mystical Tendency....Pages 27-29
Three Groups of Characters....Pages 30-32
The Return of the Native....Pages 33-62
The Mayor of Casterbridge....Pages 63-70
Far From the Madding Crowd....Pages 71-75
Hardy’s Position vis-`-vis Idealism, Naturalism and Existentialism....Pages 76-84
Front Matter....Pages 135-135
The Place of Sex in Hardy’s Ethics....Pages 87-88
Hardy’s Criticism of the Platonic Mysticism of Beauty....Pages 89-92
The Sublimation of Passion....Pages 93-99
Schopenhauer and Hardy: Sex, Love and Marriage....Pages 100-106
Hardy’s View of Guilt in Sex....Pages 107-111
The Evils of Bad Marriage and Free Love in Jude the Obscure ....Pages 112-134
Front Matter....Pages 135-135
Hardy’s Humanism....Pages 137-140
Hardy vis-`-vis J.S. Mill in The Hand of Ethelberta ....Pages 141-149
Some Streams of Moral Philosophy and the Existential Character of Hardy’s Social Ethics in Tess of the d’Urbervilles....Pages 150-165
Social Optimism and Affirmative Revolt in Jude the Obscure ....Pages 166-169
Hardy and Camus: a Brief Comparative Study of Their Moral Philosophies....Pages 170-178
Concluding Note....Pages 179-189
Back Matter....Pages 190-216