Pite, Ralph

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Wales. Office—Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, Humanities Bldg., Colum Dr., Cardiff CF10 3EU, Wales.

CAREER:

Writer. University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, professor of English literature; previously taught at the University of Cambridge and the University of Liverpool.

WRITINGS:

Dante's Influence on Coleridge and Keats: The Circle of Our Vision, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1989, published as The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic Poetry, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1994.

Hardy's Geography: Wessex and the Regional Novel, Palgrave (New York, NY), 2002.

Paths and Ladders (poems), Brodie Press (Bristol, England), 2003.

(Editor, with Hester Jones) W.S. Graham: Speaking towards You, Liverpool University Press (Liverpool, England), 2004.

Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life, Picador (London, England), 2006, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2007.

(Series editor) Lives of Victorian Literary Figures, V: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins, and William Thackeray, Pickering & Chatto (Brookfield, VT), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ralph Pite is a writer, educator, and academic, and has served as a professor of English at the University of Cambridge, University of Liverpool, and University of Cardiff. His primary areas of interest include Dante, English Romanticism, Thomas Hardy, and poet W.S. Graham, and he is the author of books on the lives of the writers of the Romantic and Victorian periods, as well as a volume of his own poetry, Paths and Ladders.

The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic Poetry addresses the influence of Dante's writings on the poets of the English Romantic period, with careful attention paid to the works of Shelley, Keats, Byron, and Coleridge. In particular, he focuses on the religious references of the poets, noting the relationship to Dante's The Divine Comedy. But Pite does not limit himself by claiming Dante was the sole influence on these writers, merely noting that he was an important one. Michael O'Neill, in a contribution to the Review of English Studies, had a mixed opinion of Pite's results, noting that the book "combines impressively the scholarly and the nuanced. Yet the pursuit of nuance can lead to tortuousness." However, Tim Fulford, in a review in the Modern Language Quarterly, remarked: "Pite is able to depict with great clarity why Dante mattered to them and why he might matter to us as readers of their work."

In Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life, Pite strives to offer readers a look inside the mind of the famous writer, attempting to link elements of his life to the themes of his work. The task is more difficult than it might have been, given Hardy's private nature and the destruction of many of his personal records and papers following his death. However, Pite makes ample use of what resources were available to him, attempting to divine the writer from his creative output, and to see through any false information left behind as part of Hardy's estate in an attempt to discourage future biographers. Brenda Wineapple, writing in Biography, was unimpressed with Pite's book, calling it "a rather airless psychological study." Richard King, in a review in the Sydney Morning Herald Online, remarked: "To make connections between art and life is the literary biographer's raison d'etre, but truly great art outsoars its beginnings: its greatness depends on its universality. This is something to bear in mind when reading this absorbing book." Sophie Ratcliffe, reviewing the book in the New Statesman, observed: "Pite admits that Hardy's life is a stubborn mystery, and his biography embraces the writer's seemingly self-conscious inconsistency. An impressive, and impressively human, book, it will be particularly useful for those researching Hardy." Sally Cunneen, in a review in America, praised Pite's approach to his material, stating: "Pite mines the writer's novels and poetry with great sensitivity, using them to illuminate Hardy's life at every stage."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, April 30, 2007, Sally Cunneen, "Behind the ‘Serene Public Image,’" p. 32.

Biography, summer, 2007, Brenda Wineapple, review of Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life.

Booklist, March 1, 2007, Bryce Christensen, review of Thomas Hardy, p. 53.

Modern Language Quarterly, March, 1996, Tim Fulford, review of The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic Poetry, p. 112.

New Statesman, July 3, 2006, Sophie Ratcliffe, "A Man with Many Sides," p. 62.

New York Times Book Review, March 18, 2007, Brenda Wineapple, "Wessex Man," p. 20.

Review of English Studies, November, 1996, Michael O'Neill, review of The Circle of Our Vision, p. 598.

Weekly Standard, May 21, 2007, Barton Swaim, "Thomas of the Hardys: The Poet-Novelist of Old England."

ONLINE

Guardian Online,http://books.guardian.co.uk/ (June 3, 2006), Jem Poster, "Secrets and Lives" review of Thomas Hardy.

Metroactive.com,http://www.metroactive.com/ (June 27, 2007), Michael S. Gant, review of Thomas Hardy.

New York Sun Online,http://www.nysun.com/ (March 7, 2007), Brooke Allen, "The Very Rich Hours of Thomas Hardy."

Spectator Online,http://www.spectator.co.uk/ (June 17, 2006), Lloyd Evans, review of Thomas Hardy.

Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia), http://www.smh.com.au/ (September 6, 2006), Richard King, review of Thomas Hardy.

Times Literary Supplement Online,http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/ (December 6, 2006), review of Thomas Hardy.

University of Liverpool, Centre of Poetry and Science Web site,http://poetryandscience.co.uk/ (October 9, 2007), biography of Ralph Pite.