Lit in Translation

Max Gate

Max Gate

Damien Wilkins (born 1963)

English editions

Written in English

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It is 1928, and Thomas Hardy, the most celebrated novelist alive, is dying in an upstairs room at Max Gate, his home in Dorset. Downstairs, those at his bedside keep him comfortable while planning how he will be remembered: his literary executor Sydney Cockerell, his friend J. M. Barrie, and Florence, the much younger secretary who became his second wife. A bitter fight breaks out between the London literary figures and the local supporters over who owns Hardy's remains. The story is told by Nellie Titterington, a shrewd maid, who also recalls a brief romance with a reporter digging for news of Hardy, and at times imagines her way into the unhappy Florence's mind.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Genres
Historical (assigned by AI)
Set in
United Kingdom, 1928
First published
2013
Author's age
50 when first published
ISBN

9780864738998 (Victoria University Press, New Zealand)

9781910709139 (Aardvark Bureau, United Kingdom)