The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon

The Dynasts, in full The Dynasts, a Drama of the Napoleonic Wars, in Three Parts, Nineteen Acts, and One Hundred and Thirty Scenes, verse drama by Thomas Hardy, published in three parts in 1903, 1906, and 1908 and together in one volume in 1910. The monumental work, written mostly in blank verse with some scenes, descriptive connecting sequences, and stage directions written in prose, depicts the career of Napoleon Bonaparte from 1805 until his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The work illustrates Hardy’s stoical pessimism and is a clear statement of his belief in “Immanent Will,” a blind and indifferent force that determines the fates (and generally blights the lives) of the privileged and the common people alike.