Thomas Hardy
1840–1928
Biography
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 at Higher Bockhampton, in the Dorset countryside of south-west England, and died in 1928. He trained as an architect before he began writing novels, and he became one of the major novelists of the Victorian age and later a significant poet. Critics often group him with the realists of his period, alongside George Eliot, though he was also shaped by Romantic poetry, especially that of Wordsworth.
His novels, among them Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, usually follow people who are pulled between their desires and the limits set by class, money and custom. Most are set in Wessex, a semi-fictional region of south-west England named after the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Hardy cared deeply about the decline of country life and the hard lot of rural people as the old ways disappeared.
After the harsh reception of Jude the Obscure in 1895, Hardy stopped writing novels and devoted himself to poetry. His first collection of verse appeared in 1898, and younger poets admired him as a mentor. Later, Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin all praised his poems.
Three of his books are on this site: Desperate Remedies, his first published novel, full of secrets and sensation; A Pair of Blue Eyes, a love story set along the Cornish coast; and Far from the Madding Crowd, one of the novels that brought him early fame.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
A pair of blue eyes
by Thomas Hardy
A Pair of Blue Eyes is English author Thomas Hardy's third published novel and the first to be serialised, and also the first to bear his name. It is ultimately a tragic story of a rector's daughter in a Wessex village who is courted by multiple men. Critics have generally…
Summary from Wikipedia: A Pair of Blue Eyes (CC BY-SA 4.0)Desperate Remedies
by Thomas Hardy
Desperate Remedies is the first published novel by English author Thomas Hardy. It is a sensation novel because it contains themes of bigamy, murder, illegitimacy, blackmail, and impersonation. It was released anonymously by Tinsley Brothers in 1871.
Summary from Wikipedia: Desperate Remedies (CC BY-SA 4.0)Far from the Madding Crowd
by Thomas Hardy
Far from the Madding Crowd is the fourth published novel by English author Thomas Hardy; and his first major literary success. It was published on 23 November 1874. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership.…
Summary from Wikipedia: Far from the Madding Crowd (CC BY-SA 4.0)Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman
by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman is the twelfth published novel by English author Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, then in book form in three volumes in 1891, and…
Summary from Wikipedia: Tess of the d'Urbervilles (CC BY-SA 4.0)Two on a Tower
by Thomas Hardy
Two on a Tower: A Romance (1882) is a novel by English author Thomas Hardy, classified by him as a romance and fantasy. It is regarded as one of his minor works. It is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, set in late Victorian Dorset.
Summary from Wikipedia: Two on a Tower (CC BY-SA 4.0)