Thomas Hardy: Distracted Preacher?: Hardy’s Religious Biography and its Influence on his Novels

This study deals with the period in Hardy's life when he was considering a career in the Church. By examining archives, identifying clergymen, and studying their writings, including sermons, the author has reconstructed these crucial years in Hardy's life. The book charts Hardy's misleading distortions of his early religious sympathies, chronicling his close associations with opposing extremes of belief, before examining his eventual adoption of a curiously idiosyncratic agnosticism.