The Well-Beloved: The Persistence of Liminality

The article investigates the pervasive trope of liminality in Thomas Hardy’s novel The Well-Beloved (1892, 1897). A traditionally marginal work within the author’s corpus, it has resisted genre definitions, being described as “a fantastic tale” and “a study of desire” (T. R. Wright), a “comedy of chagrin” (G. Beer) and a “black farce” (M. Radford). It is also an autobiographical text, the story of a late-Victorian or pre-Modernist artist living beyond borders and conventions to pursue his vision. Thematically, the novel is concerned with liminal issues too. Geographical and cultural peripheries are represented by the semi-fictional Isle of Slinger, the protagonist’s birthplace, a zone of indistinction between present and past, nature and culture, humanity and myth. Such confusion of categories is part of the hero’s persona and haunts him throughout his life. It affects his permanent quest for the elusive “well-beloved”, a Venus-like ideal that symbolizes art. In his search, he turns into a modern wandering knight: a figure floating between dream and reality. Liminality in The Well-Beloved appears even more cogent when finally considering that it was Hardy’s last published novel, the one which literally set the “outer limit” of his creative prose.