Touching newly discovered letters written by Thomas Hardy’s second wife reveal her joy at their union and, later, her sadness at life without the great author after his death – but also highlight the media pressure the celebrity couple faced more than a century ago.

In a letter written shortly after their wedding, Florence Dugdale portrayed Hardy as “one of the kindest, most humane men in the world” while acknowledging that his fame led to the constant attention of the press in the UK and US.

A letter sent after Hardy’s death includes a vivid image of her sitting in the room where she first met her late husband, a French bulldog snoring by the fire as her only companion.

Hardy’s first marriage – to Emma Gifford – has tended to garner more attention, partly because so much of his great work, including the elegiac “Poems of 1912-13”, was inspired by her.

Academics believe the three recently found letters are significant because they offer fresh insight into his relationship with Florence, a teacher and author, in his later years.

The first letter was sent by Florence from Max Gate, Hardy’s home on the outskirts of Dorchester in Dorset on 10 February 1914 to a former pupil of hers called Harold Barlow, who was away working in Africa.

Florence wrote: “Perhaps you have read, if you have the English papers, that I am now the proud and very happy wife of the greatest living English writer – Thomas Hardy.

“Although he is much older than myself, it is a genuine love match – on my part, at least, for I suppose I ought not to speak for him. At any rate I know I have for a husband one of the kindest, most humane men in the world.”

Florence also wrote about how she was weary of celebrity culture and the media: “Accounts of me & my portrait have been printed in every paper, I think, in England. I have been shown in the Cinematograph, written about all over America & Europe. I am tired of this publicity.”

Florence Dugdale’s letters being read by Ian Nicol, the grandson of their recipient, Harold Barlow. Photograph: Bridget Nicol/PA

The letters were kept by Barlow’s daughter, Josephine Barlow, and found after her death by his grandsons, Ian and Colin Nicol. The letters have been passed to Prof Angelique Richardson, of the University of Exeter, who is leading the Hardy’s Correspondents Project, as part of which letters connected to the author are being digitised.

Richardson said: “It is rare to find such significant letters. They give an intimate glimpse into life at Max Gate and the loves and losses Florence shared with Hardy. It also shows us more about Florence, how self-deprecating she was and how devoted she was to her husband.”

The second and third letters to Barlow were written 18 years later, in 1932, four years after Hardy’s death.

She said: “I am writing this late in the evening alone, in the room where I first met my husband. A little French bull-dog is snoring by the fire – he is my faithful – & generally my only – companion.”

Florence added: “I thank you for your kind words of sympathy about my great loss. It was such a wonderful thing to live in close association with that great mind & that noble personality. After having lived 14 years with such a companion it is little wonder that I feel intolerably lonely – & find the world very empty.”

Harold’s 16-year-old daughter, Josephine, wrote movingly to Florence, in 1947, full of admiration for Hardy. But the letter arrived 10 years after Florence’s death and was returned to the sender. The words: “house emty” [sic] can be seen on the envelope written by a postal worker.

The letters will be placed with the rest of Dorset Museum’s Hardy Collection.