The Coming of the End

Abstract

Hardy regretted that, as a result of not visiting London, he had not met some of his surviving friends as often as he wished, among them Edmund Gosse, who, after his retirement from the librarian-ship of the House of Lords in September 1914, had visited the western front, met Gide twice in Paris, and become acquainted with several of the younger poets. After writing regularly for the Daily Mail and being suddenly dismissed, he was ‘snapped up’ by The Sunday Times, for which he continued reviewing to the end. He had earned both acclaim and envy; his successful cultivation of the eminent reminded Evelyn Waugh of Mr Tulkinghorn in Bleak House. In January 1925 he received a knighthood, but Hardy’s congratulations were deferred until he received Gosse’s good wishes for his eighty-fifth birthday, when he claimed the advantage over his friend of being able to read a ‘brilliant article’ by him every week in a Sunday paper. Hardy’s reference to the ‘so-called honour’, and his statement that Gosse had given distinction to it, leave no doubt that he regarded it with scant approval, as he felt certain Gosse had known.