The Man He Killed (For Further Study)

For Further Study

• Bailey, J.O., The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A Handbook and Commentary, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1970.

  A reference book with a wealth of background material and commentary on every poem Hardy wrote.

• Green, Brian, Hardy’s Lyrics, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

  A detailed, if at times academic, book that discusses empathy and the narrator’s conflicting roles in the “The Man He Killed.”

• O’Sullivan, Timothy, Thomas Hardy: An Illustrated Biography, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.

  A highly accessible biography of Hardy that discusses his life and major works.

• Perkins, David, “Hardy and the Poetry of Isolation,” in Hardy: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Albert J. Guerard, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963.

  A good, straightforward discussion of the themes in “The Man He Killed.”