[Hardy-l] Gossin reviewed on TTHA

[Rosemarie Morgan]

I want to thank Kathie Bassett and Anna Henchman for half-an-hour of sheer 
thought-provoking pleasure.on TTHA's Book Reviews page!

I have just finished reading Henchman's review of Gossin, Pamela S.  Thomas 
Hardy’s Novel Universe: Astronomy, Cosmology, and Gender in the 
Post-Darwinian World.  Burlington, VT: The Nineteenth Century Series, 
Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007.


Gossin, r<http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/mrr/reviews/gossin.ah.html>eviewed 
by Anna Henchman. on TTHA's Reviews page.

Henchman, as reviewer, has a most alluring manner of becoming the sounding 
board, even the alter ego, of the author she's reviewing -- certainly, in 
this instance,  of Pamela Gossin.  It's really a very appealing stance  -- 
and if I didn't find myself quite as "alter" as did Henchman I certainly 
(many month's ago) became sufficiently enamoured of Gossin's Thomas Hardy’s 
Novel Universe to commission an essay from her for my forthcoming Research 
Companion to Thomas Hardy (Ashgate, 2008).

This, (Gossin's essay) became, over a period of time and after much 
correspondence, "Astro-Hardy" (in my files) - but was (or is) in truth,  in 
the publication arena, Hardy’s Poetic Cosmology and the "New Astronomy" -- 
a most remarkable title and a most remarkable essay holding out a great 
affinity with fellow-titles:   Kevin Padian's Evolution and Deep Time in 
Hardy  and Hardy and Scientific Humanism by Andrew Radford.

Isn't it quite extraordinary how a constellation of star essays, such as 
these, can converge at some  seemingly predestined  hour (well I wish!  not 
everyone met their deadlines on the designated hour) to become -- 
unbeknownst each to the other -- part of a shared discourse, linked forever 
in one and the same published volume ?

  Incidentally,  earlier --  Kevin wrote a remarkable review of Radford's 
book for TTHA's Book Reviews page   This will be published in the 
forthcoming *Hardy Review, Vol Xi * (on the bookshelves very shortly)

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that a conflagration of stellar "Hardy" 
activity seems to have burst upon the heavens this year - almost like 
variable stars .


Henchmen  and Gossin say that variable stars are:
    * stars that are intrinsically variable, that is, their luminosity 
actually changes, for example because the star periodically swells and shrinks;
    * eclipsing and rotating variables, where the apparent changes in 
brightness are a perspective effect.
    "The comparison of Swithin and his lover Viviette to a pair of variable 
stars, Gossin argues, is a “structural metaphor” that governs the shape of 
the novel; Viviette Constantine exerts a weak influence on her lover, 
astronomer Swithin St. Cleeve, when he is distant and a strong influence 
when they are near (176).  "
    "Their romance is explained in terms of a set of interacting bodies 
that is subject to perturbations; to come too close to a luminary is to 
risk the possibility that you will be consumed by it.  Distinctions between 
organic and inorganic bodies break down; Hardy shows that both types of 
matter­human beings and stars­are subject to influence, attraction and 
perturbation in the ever-shifting astronomical universe. "

Henchman's composure is her forte  She may not "burn" for millions of years 
but she is certainly a luminary we should all most studiously watch


Cheers
Rosemarie