@troublewithwords @samuelpepys

A deeply interesting set of entries, isn't it.

Here's an old Guardian piece about the same episode:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/21/highereducation.classics

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10904/claire-tomalin

#Pepys

#ClaireTomalin #diaries #biographies

[EDITS: added hashtags to reference Claire Tomalin, Pepy's biographer and the source of the old Guardian piece, and a link to portraits of her in the National Portrait Gallery. Claire Tomalin was born in 1933 and is still alive.]

'[Hardy] was always exceptionally anxious and sensitive about reviews.... He might have spared himself the trouble: the divide between those who disliked his language, his lower-class characters, his troubling women and his gloom, and those who appreciated the beauty and imaginative power of his work, was already there and remained firmly fixed throughout his career as a novelist.' - Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin, pp.170-71

#bookstodon #thomashardy #clairetomalin