Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist and poet, is famous for Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and The Return of the Native. He wrote novels about country people living in Wessex, his name for the rural and quiet county of Dorset in southwest England.
He wrote more than 10 volumes of poetry and short stories. Though Hardy was held in high-esteem, critics attacked him for being a pessimist in his writings, which is evident in Tess D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.
Early Years of Thomas Hardy
Hardy was a stonemason's son born on June 2 in a Dorset village in Upper Bockhampton. His parents encouraged him to love music and reading. He did learn to play the fiddle. He was educated locally in Dorchester, the county town, and then trained as an architect, aged 22. For a while he worked in architects' offices in London and later in Dorset, where he spent most of his life. He was married twice.
Hardy the Novelist
Hardy began writing by his mid-20s. The first novel he actually wrote was The Poor Man and the Lady, but he never published it, making Desperate Remedies, his first published novel when he was 31. Three years later came his first truly popular book, Far from the Madding Crowd. This was the first of his seven great novels, published between 1874 and 1895.
His most moving tales are set in the rustic and brooding landscapes of Wessex. Usually his theme related lonely individuals with human weaknesses struggling against a destiny that always overcomes them. Two of these novels, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, remind readers of the tragedies written by Aeschylus and Sophocles. These ancient Greek playwrights wrote about royal families, but the heroes and heroines of Hardy are ordinary people.
Hardy the Poet
He influenced younger generation of poets including 20th century poet Dylan Thomas. Despite the success of Hardy's novels, he thought of himself as mainly a poet. At 58 he published Wessex Poems. At 68, he wrote The Dynasts, a long verse play about the Napoleonic Wars. Even In his 80s, Hardy was still writing lyric poems.
Works by Thomas Hardy
- Desperate Remedies, 1871
- Under the Greenwood Tree, 1872
- A Pair of Blue Eyes, 1873
- Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874
- The Return of the Native, 1878
- The Trumpet-Major, 1880
- The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 1891
- Jude the Obscure, 1895
- Wessex Poems, 1898
- The Dynasts, 1903-08
Sources:
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby (1993)
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring (1994)
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