The Chosen, which I read for my Walter Scott project, is about the weeks after the death of Thomas Hardy’s wife, Emma, and also about the writing of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Hardy is working in his study when the maid comes to ask him to go to Emma. Although she indicates there is some urgency, Hardy is oblivious and continues working for a while before going up to his wife’s rooms in the attic. When he arrives there, she is dead.
The aging Hardy plunges into guilt that is made worse when, a few days later, he finds her diaries, in which he reads that Emma was deeply unhappy in their marriage. As he reads the diaries, he relives his own memories of the same days, realizing he had no idea of how aloof he seemed to her and how oblivious.
This is not really a novel of plot but more of feelings and realizations. Lowry explains at the end of the novel that Hardy burned the diaries soon after he found them, but she did quote from Hardy’s work and from letters. Emma’s death apparently spurred a collection of poems.
Waiting in the wings is Hardy’s secretary, Florence Dugdale, who seems to expect to take Emma’s place (and eventually did). She cannot understand why, after telling her so many times how unhappy he was, Hardy can now only talk about Emma.
For Hardy fans, especially, this is an insightful and beautifully written novel. It makes me wish I had known more about Hardy’s life before I read Maugham’s Cakes and Ale and this book. Although I read Claire Tomalin’s biography, it was so long ago that I don’t remember what it said about his home life (although I said it was interesting in my review).
What? Me Read? 
This sounds like an interesting story, that I have to read. I visited his house in Devonshire once, and it was very nice. I am not sure I got all the details of his life, although I did read a biography of him.
I visited his house years ago, too. For some reason the details from the biography I read have gone right out of my head.
I haven’t read this one yet but will get to it eventually. I like Thomas Hardy’s books, so it does sound interesting – although I haven’t read much about his life either.
I think it is interesting enough even if you don’t know much about him. I had forgotten most of what I knew and liked it.
Is Cakes and Ale about Thomas Hardy then?
Not by name, but I figured out it was loosely based on his life, and then it was confirmed by my further reading about it. It says that Emma was unfaithful to him, though, and there’s no evidence for that in this book. I can’t remember what the bio said about that.
Interesting!
I really don’t know much about Thomas Hardy’s life.
Thanks for sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
I didn’t know anything before I read this. I read a biography, but the details didn’t stick!