How I Built Myself a House: A Brazilian Translation of Thomas Hardy’s First Published Literary Piece

Abstract

Thomas Hardy was a prolific English writer who lived between 1840 and 1928 and penned novels, short stories, poems, and a play. Working with architects in his early adulthood years, while he ventured in his own literary pieces, Hardy’s first ever publication was the prose sketch How I Built Myself a House, disclosed by the Chamber’s Journal in March 1865, when the author was 24 years old. Although Hardy’s career as an author came to be established by the time he was over 50 years old, with tragic novels that stirred reflections on humanity, religion, science, matrimony, and society that awarded him a certain distaste by the literary critics of his time, this first literary piece presents a good humor that precedes such dramatic tone of his future works. The text fictionalizes the mishaps faced by a couple who intends to leave their troublesome home behind and move into the house of their dreams. The main character and his wife find themselves in need to let go of many of their idealizations during the construction of their new home, which also brings them problems. This Brazilian translation of How I Built Myself a House is the first translation of the piece to Portuguese.