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Which Thomas Hardy novel was based partly on his courtship of Emma Gifford?
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Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy.
The Thomas Hardy novel that drew heavily upon the circumstances of his courtship with Emma Lavinia Gifford is A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873).1
Hardy met Emma in 1870 while conducting an architectural assessment of the Church of St. Juliot in Cornwall. The novel reflects this period through its wild Cornish setting and its melodramatic narrative concerning a young woman who bears a resemblance to Emma Gifford and the two men who compete for her affection.1