Tess at Kingston Maurward - An Exploration of a Writer's Muse

A Talk by Luke Rake for the Thomas Hardy Society Conference 2021

Monday 12th July at 9.15am.

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Hardy was born and lived most of his life within or next to the Kingston Maurward Estate. The development of a great body of his works was born from the interplay between the day to day lives he saw and the inevitable nature of the struggle that all lives present to the individual. The muse(s) for Tess inhabited the same piece of history as Hardy, and the same geographic space. This talk will look at the development of Hardy's work as both documentary recording of the world and the interpretation of landscape through the eyes of Tess and her struggle, both imagined and via the actuality of those lives upon which her character was based, set in the landscape of the Kingston Maurward Estate and its surroundings.

Luke Rake joined Kingston Maurward as Principal and Chief Executive in 2016. An Oxford-educated zoologist who grew up on the edge of Dartmoor, Luke has long had a passion for the natural world, and the interactions of humans with it, especially the nature of appreciation of the past and the emotional resonance created by landscape. He is also a Fellow of the Linnean Society in recognition of work in promoting biological understanding, a board member of Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Nature Partnership and currently chairs Dorset's Rural Enterprise Group.

Tickets: For those who are not attending the conference in its entirety - £10 (£8 for THS Members)