From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction
Although Winifred Holtby admired Virginia Woolf’s work, she seems to have disregarded her later injunction in A Room of One’s Own (1929) for women to think back through their mothers, to turn to her literary “father”, namely Thomas Hardy, who was still alive when she wrote Anderby Wold (1923). A con...
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| Cyhoeddwyd yn: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom, |
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| Fformat: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Iaith: | Anglais |
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FATHOM
2026
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| Mynediad Ar-lein: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_2845 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_2845 https://doi.org/10.4000/16apb urn:doi:10.4000/16apb en https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/2845 2026-05-29T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/16apb https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction FATHOM Association française sur les études sur Thomas Hardy info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2270-6798 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom Reynier, Christine intertextualité tradition appropriation patrimoine héritage satire roman régional Holtby (Winifred) intertextuality tradition appropriation heritage legacy satire regional novel Holtby (Winifred) Although Winifred Holtby admired Virginia Woolf’s work, she seems to have disregarded her later injunction in A Room of One’s Own (1929) for women to think back through their mothers, to turn to her literary “father”, namely Thomas Hardy, who was still alive when she wrote Anderby Wold (1923). A contemporary of D. H. Lawrence, Holtby (1898-1935) is usually presented as a regional writer. Her most popular novel, South Riding (1936), can be said to bear the trace of Hardy’s fictional geography since her favourite territory is like Hardy’s Wessex, “a partly real, partly dream-country”. This paper would like to go beyond this mere kinship and probe Hardy’s influence on Holtby, generally mentioned in passing, and see what this writer of the interwar may owe to the Victorian writer. It will shift the focus to a lesser-known novel, Anderby Wold (1923), Holtby’s first novel, set in rural Yorkshire and dealing with the agricultural world at the turn of the century. We will first see how the novel resonates with Far from the Madding Crowd by identifying intertextual traces of Hardy’s novel in Anderby Wold and show how acknowledging Hardy’s legacy may colour our reading of the novel. Capturing the influence of Hardy’s fiction, literary devices and values will open the way to an assessment of what the rural and the regional mean for Holtby. Hardy’s enduring legacy will be measured in the process. Bien que Winifred Holtby ait admiré l'œuvre de Virginia Woolf, elle semble avoir ignoré l'injonction qu'elle fit plus tard aux femmes dans A Room of One's Own (1929) de penser par l’intermédiaire de leurs mères, pour se tourner vers un « père » littéraire, à savoir Thomas Hardy, qui était encore en vie lorsqu'elle écrivit Anderby Wold (1923). Contemporaine de D. H. Lawrence, Holtby (1898-1935) est généralement considérée comme une écrivaine régionale. On peut dire que son roman le plus populaire, South Riding (1936), porte la trace de la géographie fictive de Hardy, puisque son territoire de prédilection est, comme le Wessex de Hardy, « un pays en partie réel, en partie rêvé ». Cet article voudrait aller au-delà de cette simple constatation et sonder l'influence de Hardy sur Holtby, généralement mentionnée en passant, et voir ce que cette écrivaine de l'entre-deux-guerres peut devoir à l'écrivain victorien. Nous nous concentrerons sur un roman moins connu, Anderby Wold, le premier roman de Holtby, qui se déroule dans le Yorkshire rural et évoque le monde agricole au tournant du siècle. Nous verrons tout d'abord comment le roman entre en résonance avec Far from the Madding Crowd en identifiant les traces intertextuelles du roman de Hardy dans Anderby Wold et nous montrerons comment la reconnaissance de l'héritage de Hardy peut influencer notre lecture du roman. Saisir l'influence de la fiction, des procédés littéraires et des valeurs de Hardy permettra d’évaluer la signification du rural et du régional chez Holtby. L'héritage et l'influence durables de Hardy seront dans le même temps appréciés. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
intertextualité tradition appropriation patrimoine héritage satire roman régional Holtby (Winifred) intertextuality tradition appropriation heritage legacy satire regional novel Holtby (Winifred) |
| spellingShingle |
intertextualité tradition appropriation patrimoine héritage satire roman régional Holtby (Winifred) intertextuality tradition appropriation heritage legacy satire regional novel Holtby (Winifred) Reynier, Christine From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction |
| description |
Although Winifred Holtby admired Virginia Woolf’s work, she seems to have disregarded her later injunction in A Room of One’s Own (1929) for women to think back through their mothers, to turn to her literary “father”, namely Thomas Hardy, who was still alive when she wrote Anderby Wold (1923). A contemporary of D. H. Lawrence, Holtby (1898-1935) is usually presented as a regional writer. Her most popular novel, South Riding (1936), can be said to bear the trace of Hardy’s fictional geography since her favourite territory is like Hardy’s Wessex, “a partly real, partly dream-country”. This paper would like to go beyond this mere kinship and probe Hardy’s influence on Holtby, generally mentioned in passing, and see what this writer of the interwar may owe to the Victorian writer. It will shift the focus to a lesser-known novel, Anderby Wold (1923), Holtby’s first novel, set in rural Yorkshire and dealing with the agricultural world at the turn of the century. We will first see how the novel resonates with Far from the Madding Crowd by identifying intertextual traces of Hardy’s novel in Anderby Wold and show how acknowledging Hardy’s legacy may colour our reading of the novel. Capturing the influence of Hardy’s fiction, literary devices and values will open the way to an assessment of what the rural and the regional mean for Holtby. Hardy’s enduring legacy will be measured in the process. |
| author |
Reynier, Christine |
| author_facet |
Reynier, Christine |
| author_sort |
Reynier, Christine |
| title |
From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction |
| title_short |
From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction |
| title_full |
From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction |
| title_fullStr |
From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed |
From Far from the Madding Crowd to Anderby Wold: Assessing Thomas Hardy’s Legacy in Winifred Holtby’s Early Fiction |
| title_sort |
from far from the madding crowd to anderby wold: assessing thomas hardy’s legacy in winifred holtby’s early fiction |
| publisher |
FATHOM |
| publishDate |
2026 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/16apb https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/2845 |
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