Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wro ...

, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

, including the poetry of

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ...

. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels such as '' Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874), ''

The Mayor of Casterbridge ''The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character'' is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing in for Dorchester in D ...

'' (1886), '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' (1891), and ''

Jude the Obscure ''Jude the Obscure'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy, which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895 (though the title page says 1896). It is Hardy's last completed novel. The protagonist, Jude Fawley ...

'' (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin. Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

; initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Hardy's Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England. Two of his novels, ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' and ''Far from the Madding Crowd'', were listed in the top 50 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Life and career

Early life

Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (then Upper Bockhampton), a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (1811–1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder, and married his mother Jemima (née Hand; 1813–1904) in Beaminster, towards the end of 1839. Jemima was well-read, and she educated Thomas until he went to his first school at Bockhampton at the age of eight. For several years he attended Mr. Last's Academy for Young Gentlemen in Dorchester, where he learned Latin and demonstrated academic potential. Because Hardy's family lacked the means for a university education, his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, when he became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862; there he enrolled as a student at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King ...

. He won prizes from the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

and the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

. He joined Arthur Blomfield's practice as assistant architect in April 1862 and worked with Blomfield on All Saints' parish church in

Windsor, Berkshire Windsor is a historic market town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British monarch. The town is situated west ...

, in 1862–64. A

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ...

, possibly designed by Hardy, was discovered behind panelling at All Saints' in August 2016. In the mid-1860s, Hardy was in charge of the excavation of part of the graveyard of

St Pancras Old Church St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in Somers Town, Central London. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, and is believed by many to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. The church i ...

prior to its destruction when the Midland Railway was extended to a new terminus at St Pancras. Hardy never felt at home in London, because he was acutely conscious of class divisions and his social inferiority. During this time he became interested in social reform and the works of

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

. He was introduced by his Dorset friend

Horace Moule Horatio Mosley Moule (1832–1873) was the fourth son of Anglican priest and inventor Henry Moule, and is best remembered as a friend of Thomas Hardy. He was generally known as Horace, to distinguish him from his Uncle Horatio, after whom he ...

to the works of

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical i ...

and

Auguste Comte Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense o ...

. Mill's essay '' On Liberty'' was one of Hardy's cures for despair, and in 1924 he declared that "my pages show harmony of view with" Mill. He was also attracted to

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

's and

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellect ...

's ideal of the urbane liberal freethinker. After five years, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset, settling in Weymouth, and decided to dedicate himself to writing.

Marriage

In 1870, while on an architectural mission to restore the parish church of St Juliot in Cornwall, Hardy met and fell in love with

Emma Gifford Emma Lavinia Gifford (24 November 1840 – 27 November 1912) was an English writer and suffragist, who was the first wife of the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. Early life Emma Gifford was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 24 November 1840 The secon ...

, whom he married in Kensington in late 1874. renting St David's Villa, Southborough (now Surbiton) for a year. In 1885 Thomas and his wife moved into Max Gate in Dorchester, a house designed by Hardy and built by his brother. Although they later became estranged, Emma's subsequent death in 1912 had a traumatic effect on him and after her death, Hardy made a trip to Cornwall to revisit places linked with their courtship; his '' Poems 1912–13'' reflect upon her death. In 1914, Hardy married his secretary Florence Emily Dugdale, who was 39 years his junior. He remained preoccupied with his first wife's death and tried to overcome his remorse by writing poetry. In his later years, he kept a Wire Fox Terrier named Wessex, who was notoriously ill-tempered. Wessex's grave stone can be found on the Max Gate grounds. In 1910, Hardy had been appointed a Member of the Order of Merit and was also for the first time nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

. He was nominated again for the prize 11 years later.

Hardy and the theatre

Hardy's interest in the theatre dated from the 1860s. He corresponded with various would-be adapters over the years, including Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 and Jack Grein and Charles Jarvis in the same decade. Neither adaptation came to fruition, but Hardy showed he was potentially enthusiastic about such a project. One play that was performed, however, caused him a certain amount of pain. His experience of the controversy and lukewarm critical reception that had surrounded his and Comyns Carr's adaptation of '' Far From the Madding Crowd'' in 1882 left him wary of the damage that adaptations could do to his literary reputation. So it is notable that, in 1908, he so readily and enthusiastically became involved with a local amateur group, at the time known as the Dorchester Dramatic and Debating Society, but that would become the Hardy Players. His reservations about adaptations of his novels meant he was initially at some pains to disguise his involvement in the play. However, the international success of the play, '' The Trumpet Major'', led to a long and successful collaboration between Hardy and the Players over the remaining years of his life. Indeed, his play ''The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at

Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroun ...

in Lyonnesse'' (1923) was written to be performed by the Hardy Players.

Final years

In 1914, Hardy was one of fifty-three leading British authors—including

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—who signed their names to the “Authors' Declaration”, justifying Britain’s involvement in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain “could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war.” Hardy was horrified by the destruction caused by the war, pondering that "I do not think a world in which such fiendishness is possible to be worth the saving" and "better to let western 'civilization' perish, and let the black and yellow races have a chance." He wrote to John Galsworthy that "the exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world." Hardy became ill with

pleurisy Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity ( pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other s ...

in December 1927 and died at Max Gate just after 9 pm on 11 January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed; the cause of death was cited, on his death certificate, as "cardiac syncope", with "old age" given as a contributory factor. His funeral was on 16 January at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

, and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. His family and friends concurred; however, his executor, Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner. Hardy's estate at death was valued at £95,418 (). Shortly after Hardy's death, the executors of his estate burnt his letters and notebooks, but twelve notebooks survived, one of them containing notes and extracts of newspaper stories from the 1820s, and research into these has provided insight into how Hardy used them in his works. In the year of his death Mrs Hardy published ''The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841–1891'', compiled largely from contemporary notes, letters, diaries, and biographical memoranda, as well as from oral information in conversations extending over many years. Hardy's work was admired by many younger writers, including D. H. Lawrence, John Cowper Powys, and Virginia Woolf. In his autobiography ''

Good-Bye to All That ''Good-Bye to All That'' is an autobiography by Robert Graves which first appeared in 1929, when the author was 34 years old. "It was my bitter leave-taking of England," he wrote in a prologue to the revised second edition of 1957, "where I had ...

'' (1929), Robert Graves recalls meeting Hardy in Dorset in the early 1920s and how Hardy received him and his new wife warmly, and was encouraging about his work. Hardy's birthplace in Bockhampton and his house Max Gate, both in Dorchester, are owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Novels

Thomas Hardy's Cottage, Bockhampton, Dorset

Thomas Hardy Locations, Tess of the Durbervilles (1) - geograph

Hardy's first novel, '' The Poor Man and the Lady'', finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher. He then showed it to his mentor and friend, the Victorian poet and novelist

George Meredith George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but he gradually established a reputation as a novelist. '' The Or ...

, who felt that ''The Poor Man and the Lady'' would be too politically controversial and might damage Hardy's ability to publish in the future. So Hardy followed his advice and he did not try further to publish it. He subsequently destroyed the manuscript, but used some of the ideas in his later work. In his recollections in ''Life and Work'', Hardy described the book as "socialistic, not to say revolutionary; yet not argumentatively so." After he abandoned his first novel, Hardy wrote two new ones that he hoped would have more commercial appeal, '' Desperate Remedies'' (1871) and '' Under the Greenwood Tree'' (1872), both of which were published anonymously; it was while working on the latter that he met Emma Gifford, who would become his wife. In 1873 ''

A Pair of Blue Eyes ''A Pair of Blue Eyes'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1873, first serialised between September 1872 and July 1873. It was Hardy's third published novel, and the first not published anonymously upon its first publication. Hardy includ ...

'', a novel drawing on Hardy's courtship of Emma, was published under his own name. A plot device popularised by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

, the term "

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

" is considered to have originated with the serialised version of ''A Pair of Blue Eyes'' (published in '' Tinsley's Magazine'' between September 1872 and July 1873) in which Henry Knight, one of the protagonists, is left literally hanging off a cliff. Elements of Hardy's fiction reflect the influence of the commercially successful sensation fiction of the 1860s, particularly the legal complications in novels such as ''Desperate Remedies'' (1871), ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874) and ''Two on a Tower'' (1882). In '' Far from the Madding Crowd'', Hardy first introduced the idea of calling the region in the west of England, where his novels are set,

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

. Wessex had been the name of an early

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

kingdom, in approximately the same part of England. ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' was successful enough for Hardy to give up architectural work and pursue a literary career. Over the next 25 years, Hardy produced 10 more novels. Subsequently, the Hardys moved from London to

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somerset's southern border with ...

, and then to

Sturminster Newton Sturminster Newton is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It is situated on a low limestone ridge in a meander of the River Stour. The town is at the centre of a large dairy agriculture region, around which ...

, where he wrote '' The Return of the Native'' (1878). In 1880, Hardy published his only historical novel, '' The Trumpet-Major''. A further move to Wimborne saw Hardy write '' Two on a Tower'', published in 1882, a romance story set in the world of astronomy. Then in 1885, they moved for the last time, to Max Gate, a house outside Dorchester designed by Hardy and built by his brother. There he wrote ''

'' (1886), ''

The Woodlanders ''The Woodlanders'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was serialised from May 1886 to April 1887 in '' Macmillan's Magazine'' and published in three volumes in 1887. It is one of his series of Wessex novels. Plot summary The story takes place in ...

'' (1887), and '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' (1891), the last of which attracted criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of a "fallen woman", and initially it was refused publication. Its subtitle, ''A Pure Woman: Faithfully Presented'', was intended to raise the eyebrows of the Victorian middle classes. Thomas Hardy Locations, Return of the Native - geograph

Thomas Hardy Locations, Return of the Native - geograph

'', published in 1895, met with an even stronger negative response from the Victorian public because of its controversial treatment of sex, religion and marriage. Its apparent attack on the institution of marriage caused strain on Hardy's already difficult marriage because Emma Hardy was concerned that ''Jude the Obscure'' would be read as autobiographical. Some booksellers sold the novel in brown paper bags, and

Walsham How William Walsham How (13 December 182310 August 1897) was an English Anglican bishop. Known as Walsham How, he was the son of a Shrewsbury solicitor; How was educated at Shrewsbury School, Wadham College, Oxford and University College, Durham. H ...

, the

Bishop of Wakefield The Bishop of Wakefield is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. The title was first created for a diocesan bishop in 1888, but it was dissolved in 2014. The Bishop of Wakefield is no ...

, is reputed to have burnt his copy. In his postscript of 1912, Hardy humorously referred to this incident as part of the career of the book: "After these ostileverdicts from the press its next misfortune was to be burnt by a bishop – probably in his despair at not being able to burn me". Despite this, Hardy had become a celebrity by the 1900s, but some argue that he gave up writing novels because of the criticism of both ''Tess of the D'Urbervilles'' and ''Jude the Obscure''."Thomas Hardy", ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th edition, vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000, p.1916. '' The Well-Beloved'', first serialised in 1892, was published in 1897.

Literary themes

Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living in

Victorian England In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

, and criticises those beliefs, especially those relating to marriage, education and religion, that limited people's lives and caused unhappiness. Such unhappiness, and the suffering it brings, is seen by poet Philip Larkin as central in Hardy's works: In ''Two on a Tower'', for example, Hardy takes a stand against these rules of society with a story of love that crosses the boundaries of class. The reader is forced to reconsider the conventions set up by society for the relationships between men and women. Nineteenth-century society had conventions, which were enforced. In this novel Swithin St Cleeve's idealism pits him against such contemporary social constraints. Fate or chance is another important theme. Hardy's characters often encounter crossroads on a journey, a junction that offers alternative physical destinations but which is also symbolic of a point of opportunity and transition, further suggesting that fate is at work. ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' is an example of a novel in which chance has a major role: "Had Bathsheba not sent the valentine, had Fanny not missed her wedding, for example, the story would have taken an entirely different path." Indeed, Hardy's main characters often seem to be held in fate's overwhelming grip.

Poetry

In 1898, Hardy published his first volume of poetry, '' Wessex Poems'', a collection of poems written over 30 years. While some suggest that Hardy gave up writing novels following the harsh criticism of ''Jude the Obscure'' in 1896, the poet C. H. Sisson calls this "hypothesis" "superficial and absurd". In the twentieth century Hardy published only poetry. Thomas Hardy wrote in a great variety of poetic forms, including lyrics,

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s, satire,

dramatic monologue Dramatic monologue is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character. M.H. Abrams notes the following three features of the ''dramatic monologue'' as it applies to poetry: Types of dramatic monologue One of the m ...

s, and dialogue, as well as a three-volume epic closet drama '' The Dynasts'' (1904–08), and though in some ways a very traditional poet, because he was influenced by folksong and ballads, he "was never conventional," and "persistently experiment dwith different, often invented, stanza forms and metres, and made use of "rough-hewn rhythms and colloquial diction". Hardy wrote a number of significant war poems that relate to both the Boer Wars and World War I, including "Drummer Hodge", "In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'", and " The Man He Killed"; his work had a profound influence on other war poets such as

Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an E ...

and

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

. Hardy in these poems often used the viewpoint of ordinary soldiers and their colloquial speech. A theme in the '' Wessex Poems'' is the long shadow that the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

cast over the 19th century, as seen, for example, in "The Sergeant's Song" and "Leipzig".Katherine Kearney Maynard, ''Thomas Hardy's Tragic Poetry: The Lyrics and The Dynasts''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991, pp. 8–12. The Napoleonic War is the subject of ''The Dynasts''. Some of Hardy's more famous poems are from "Poems of 1912–13", part of ''Satires of Circumstance'' (1914), written following the death of his wife Emma in 1912. They had been estranged for 20 years, and these lyric poems express deeply felt "regret and remorse". Poems like "After a Journey", "The Voice", and others from this collection "are by general consent regarded as the peak of his poetic achievement". In a recent biography on Hardy,

Claire Tomalin Claire Tomalin (née Delavenay; born 20 June 1933) is an English journalist and biographer, known for her biographies of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft. Early life Tomalin was born Claire De ...

argues that Hardy became a truly great English poet after the death of his first wife Emma, beginning with these elegies, which she describes as among "the finest and strangest celebrations of the dead in English poetry." Thomas Hardy (1923 portrait)

Many of Hardy's poems deal with themes of disappointment in love and life, and "the perversity of fate", but the best of them present these themes with "a carefully controlled elegiac feeling".

Irony Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

is an important element in a number of Hardy's poems, including "The Man He Killed" and "Are You Digging on My Grave". A few of Hardy's poems, such as " The Blinded Bird", a melancholy polemic against the sport of , reflect his firm stance against animal cruelty, exhibited in his antivivisectionist views and his membership in The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A number of notable English composers, including

Gerald Finzi Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

, and Gustav Holst, set poems by Hardy to music. Holst also wrote the orchestral tone poem '' Egdon Heath: A Homage to Thomas Hardy'' in 1927. Although his poems were initially not as well received as his novels had been, Hardy is now recognised as one of the great poets of the 20th century, and his verse had a profound influence on later writers, including

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...

, W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Philip Larkin. Larkin included 27 poems by Hardy compared with only nine by

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biog ...

in his edition of the ''Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse'' in 1973. There were fewer poems by W. B. Yeats.

Religious beliefs

Hardy's family was

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Euro ...

, but not especially devout. He was baptised at the age of five weeks and attended church, where his father and uncle contributed to music. He did not attend the local

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...

school, instead being sent to Mr Last's school, three miles away. As a young adult, he befriended Henry R. Bastow (a Plymouth Brethren man), who also worked as a pupil architect, and who was preparing for

adult baptism Believer's baptism or adult baptism (occasionally called credobaptism, from the Latin word meaning "I believe") is the practice of baptizing those who are able to make a conscious profession of faith, as contrasted to the practice of baptizing ...

in the

Baptist Church Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

. Hardy flirted with conversion, but decided against it. Bastow went to Australia and maintained a long correspondence with Hardy, but eventually Hardy tired of these exchanges and the correspondence ceased. This concluded Hardy's links with the Baptists. The irony and struggles of life, coupled with his naturally curious mind, led him to question the traditional Christian view of God: Scholars have debated Hardy's religious leanings for years, often unable to reach a consensus. Once, when asked in correspondence by a clergyman, Dr. A. B. Grosart, about the question of reconciling the horrors of human and animal life with "the absolute goodness and non-limitation of God", Hardy replied, Hardy frequently conceived of, and wrote about, supernatural forces, particularly those that control the universe through indifference or caprice, a force he called The Immanent Will. He also showed in his writing some degree of fascination with ghosts and spirits.Ellman, Richard, & O' Clair, Robert (eds.) 1988. "Thomas Hardy" in ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry'', Norton, New York. Even so, he retained a strong emotional attachment to the Christian liturgy and church rituals, particularly as manifested in rural communities, that had been such a formative influence in his early years, and Biblical references can be found woven throughout many of Hardy's novels. Hardy's friends during his apprenticeship to John Hicks included

(one of the eight sons of Henry Moule), and the poet William Barnes, both ministers of religion. Moule remained a close friend of Hardy's for the rest of his life, and introduced him to new scientific findings that cast doubt on literal interpretations of the Bible, such as those of

Gideon Mantell Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852) was a British obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of ''Iguanodon'' began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in ...

. Moule gave Hardy a copy of Mantell's book ''The Wonders of Geology'' (1848) in 1858, and Adelene Buckland has suggested that there are "compelling similarities" between the "cliffhanger" section from ''A Pair of Blue Eyes'' and Mantell's geological descriptions. It has also been suggested that the character of Henry Knight in ''A Pair of Blue Eyes'' was based on Horace Moule. Throughout his life, Hardy sought a rationale for believing in an afterlife or a timeless existence, turning first to spiritualists, such as Henri Bergson, and then to Albert Einstein and

J. M. E. McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (3 September 1866 – 18 January 1925) was an English idealist metaphysician. For most of his life McTaggart was a fellow and lecturer in philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an exponent of the phil ...

, considering their philosophy on time and space in relation to immortality.

Locations in novels

Sites associated with Hardy's own life and which inspired the settings of his novels continue to attract literary tourists and casual visitors. For locations in Hardy's novels see:

Thomas Hardy's Wessex Thomas Hardy's Wessex is the fictional literary landscape created by the English author Thomas Hardy as the setting for his major novels, located in the south and southwest of England. Hardy named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Sax ...

, and the Thomas Hardy's Wessex research site, which includes maps.

Influence

Hardy corresponded with and visited Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell at Wenlock Abbey and many of Lady Catherine's books are inspired by Hardy, who was very fond of her. D. H. Lawrence's ''Study of Thomas Hardy'' (1914, first published 1936) indicates the importance of Hardy for him, even though this work is a platform for Lawrence's own developing philosophy rather than a more standard literary study. The influence of Hardy's treatment of character, and Lawrence's own response to the central metaphysic behind many of Hardy's novels, helped significantly in the development of ''

The Rainbow ''The Rainbow'' is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence, first published by Methuen & Co. in 1915. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family living in Nottinghamshire, focusing particularly on the individual's struggle to growth ...

'' (1915) and ''

Women in Love ''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel ''The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...

'' (1920). ''Wood and Stone'' (1915), the first novel by John Cowper Powys, who was a contemporary of Lawrence, was "Dedicated with devoted admiration to the greatest poet and novelist of our age Thomas Hardy". Powys's later novel '' Maiden Castle'' (1936) is set in Dorchester, Hardy's Casterbridge, and was intended by Powys to be a "rival" to Hardy's ''

''. ''Maiden Castle'' is the last of Powys's so-called Wessex novels, '' Wolf Solent'' (1929), '' A Glastonbury Romance'' (1932), and '' Weymouth Sands'' (1934), which are set in Somerset and Dorset. Hardy was clearly the starting point for the character of the novelist Edward Driffield in W. Somerset Maugham's novel '' Cakes and Ale'' (1930). Thomas Hardy's works also feature prominently in the American playwright

Christopher Durang Christopher Ferdinand Durang (born January 2, 1949) is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s. ...

's ''The Marriage of Bette and Boo'' (1985), in which a graduate thesis analysing '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' is interspersed with analysis of Matt's family's neuroses. The

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

s '' Mai-Dun'' by John Ireland (1921) and '' Egdon Heath'' by Gustav Holst (1927) evoke the landscape of Hardy's novels. Hardy has been a significant influence on Nigel Blackwell, frontman of the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

British rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, who has often incorporated phrases (some obscure) by or about Hardy into his song lyrics.

Works

Far-From-The-Madding-Crowd-1874-Title-Page

Prose

In 1912, Hardy divided his novels and collected short stories into three classes:

Novels of character and environment

* '' The Poor Man and the Lady'' (1867, unpublished and lost) * '' Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School'' (1872) * '' Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874) * '' The Return of the Native'' (1878) * ''

: The Life and Death of a Man of Character'' (1886) * ''

'' (1887) * ''

Wessex Tales ''Wessex Tales'' is an 1888 collection of tales written by English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, many of which are set before Hardy's birth in 1840. In the various short stories, Hardy writes of the true nature of nineteenth-century marria ...

'' (1888, a collection of short stories) * '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented'' (1891) * '' Life's Little Ironies'' (1894, a collection of short stories) * ''

'' (1895)

Romances and fantasies

* ''

: A Novel'' (1873) * '' The Trumpet-Major'' (1880) * '' Two on a Tower: A Romance'' (1882) * '' A Group of Noble Dames'' (1891, a collection of short stories) * '' The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament'' (1897) (first published as a serial from 1892)

Novels of ingenuity

* '' Desperate Remedies: A Novel'' (1871) * '' The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters'' (1876) * '' A Laodicean: A Story of To-day'' (1881)

Other

Hardy also produced minor tales; one story, ''The Spectre of the Real'' (1894) was written in collaboration with Florence Henniker. An additional short-story collection, beyond the ones mentioned above, is '' A Changed Man and Other Tales'' (1913). His works have been collected as the 24-volume Wessex Edition (1912–13) and the 37-volume Mellstock Edition (1919–20). His largely self-written biography appears under his second wife's name in two volumes from 1928 to 1930, as ''The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–91'' and ''The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892–1928'', now published in a critical one-volume edition as ''The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy'', edited by Michael Millgate (1984).

Short stories

(with date of first publication) * "How I Built Myself a House" (1865) * "Destiny and a Blue Cloak" (1874) * "The Thieves Who Couldn't Stop Sneezing" (1877) * "The Duchess of Hamptonshire" (1878) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "The Distracted Preacher" (1879) (collected in ''Wessex Tales'') * "Fellow-Townsmen" (1880) (collected in ''Wessex Tales'') * "The Honourable Laura" (1881) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "What the Shepherd Saw" (1881) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four" (1882) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * " The Three Strangers" (1883) (collected in ''Wessex Tales'') * "The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid" (1883) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "Interlopers at the Knap" (1884) (collected in ''Wessex Tales'') * " A Mere Interlude" (1885) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "A Tryst at an Ancient Earthwork" (1885) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * " Alicia's Diary" (1887) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "The Waiting Supper" (1887–88) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "The Withered Arm" (1888) (collected in ''Wessex Tales'') * " A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" (1888) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "The First Countess of Wessex" (1889) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "Anna, Lady Baxby" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "The Lady Icenway" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "Lady Mottisfont" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "The Lady Penelope" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "The Marchioness of Stonehenge" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "Squire Petrick's Lady" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "Barbara of the House of Grebe" (1890) (collected in ''A Group of Noble Dames'') * "The Melancholy Hussar of The German Legion" (1890) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "The Winters and the Palmleys" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "For Conscience' Sake" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "Incident in the Life of Mr. George Crookhill" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "The Doctor's Legend" (1891) * "Andrey Satchel and the Parson and Clerk" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "The History of the Hardcomes" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "Netty Sargent's Copyhold" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "On the Western Circuit" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "A Few Crusted Characters: Introduction" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "The Superstitious Man's Story" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "To Please His Wife" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "The Son's Veto" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "Old Andrey's Experience as a Musician" (1891) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * " Our Exploits At West Poley" (1892–93) * "Master John Horseleigh, Knight" (1893) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * " The Fiddler of the Reels" (1893) (collected in ''Life's Little Ironies'') * "An Imaginative Woman" (1894) (collected in ''Wessex Tales'', 1896 edition) * "The Spectre of the Real" (1894) * "A Committee-Man of 'The Terror'" (1896) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "The Duke's Reappearance" (1896) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "The Grave by the Handpost" (1897) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "A Changed Man" (1900) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "Enter a Dragoon" (1900) (collected in ''A Changed Man and Other Stories'') * "Blue Jimmy: The Horse Stealer" (1911) * "Old Mrs. Chundle" (1929) * " The Unconquerable"(1992)

Poetry collections

* '' Wessex Poems and Other Verses'' (1898) * '' Poems of the Past and the Present'' (1901) * '' Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses'' (1909) * '' Satires of Circumstance'' (1914) * '' Moments of Vision'' (1917) * ''Collected Poems'' (1919) * '' Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses'' (1922) * '' Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles'' (1925) * '' Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres'' (1928) * ''The Complete Poems'' (Macmillan, 1976) * ''Selected Poems'' (Edited by Harry Thomas, Penguin, 1993) * ''Hardy: Poems'' (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets, 1995) * ''Thomas Hardy: Selected Poetry and Nonfictional Prose'' ( St. Martin's Press, 1996) * ''Selected Poems'' (Edited by Robert Mezey, Penguin, 1998) * ''Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems'' (Edited by James Gibson, Palgrave, 2001) Online poems: Poems by Thomas Hardy at

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist R ...

and Poems by Thomas Hardy at poemhunter.com“Thomas Hardy poems”
.

Drama

* '' The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon'' (verse drama) ** ''The Dynasts, Part 1'' (1904) ** ''The Dynasts, Part 2'' (1906) ** ''The Dynasts, Part 3'' (1908) * ''The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at

in Lyonnesse'' (1923) (one-act play)

References

Biographies and criticism

* Armstrong, Tim. "Player Piano: Poetry and Sonic Modernity" in ''Modernism/Modernity'' 14.1 (January 2007), 1–19. * Beatty, Claudius J.P. ''Thomas Hardy: Conservation Architect. His Work for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings''. Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 1995. * Blunden, Edmund. ''Thomas Hardy.'' New York: St. Martin's, 1942. * Brady, Kristen. ''The Short Stories of Thomas Hardy.'' London: Macmillan, 1982. * Boumelha, Penny. ''Thomas Hardy and Women.'' New Jersey: Barnes and Noble, 1982. * Brennecke, Jr., Ernest. ''The Life of Thomas Hardy.'' New York: Greenberg, 1925. * Cecil, Lord David. ''Hardy the Novelist.'' London: Constable, 1943. * D'Agnillo, Renzo, "Music and Metaphor in ''Under the Greenwood Tree'', in ''The Thomas Hardy Journal'', 9, 2 (May 1993), pp.39–50. * D'Agnillo, Renzo, "Between Belief and Non-Belief: Thomas Hardy’s 'The Shadow on the Stone'”, in Thomas Hardy, Francesco Marroni and Norman Page (eds), Pescara, Edizioni Tracce, 1995, pp. 197–222. * Deacon, Lois and Terry Coleman. ''Providence and Mr. Hardy.'' London: Hutchinson, 1966. * Draper, Jo. ''Thomas Hardy: A Life in Pictures.'' Wimborne, Dorset: The Dovecote Press. * Ellman, Richard & O'Clair, Robert (eds.) 1988. "Thomas Hardy" in ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry'', Norton, New York. * Gatrell, Simon. ''Hardy the Creator: A Textual Biography.'' Oxford: Clarendon, 1988. * Gibson, James. ''Thomas Hardy: A Literary Life.'' London: Macmillan, 1996. * Gibson, James. ''Thomas Hardy: Interviews and Recollections.'' London: Macmillan, 1999; New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. * Gittings, Robert. ''Thomas Hardy's Later Years.'' Boston : Little, Brown, 1978. * Gittings, Robert. ''Young Thomas Hardy.'' Boston : Little, Brown, 1975. * Gittings, Robert and Jo Manton. ''The Second Mrs Hardy.'' London: Heinemann, 1979. * Gossin, P. ''Thomas Hardy's Novel Universe: Astronomy, Cosmology, and Gender in the Post-Darwinian World''. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007 (The Nineteenth Century Series). * Halliday, F. E. ''Thomas Hardy: His Life and Work.'' Bath: Adams & Dart, 1972. * Hands, Timothy. ''Thomas Hardy : Distracted Preacher? : Hardy's religious biography and its influence on his novels.'' New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. * Hardy, Evelyn. ''Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography.'' London: Hogarth Press, 1954. * Hardy, Florence Emily. ''The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–1891.'' London: Macmillan, 1928. * Hardy, Florence Emily. ''The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892–1928'' London: Macmillan, 1930. * Harvey, Geoffrey. ''Thomas Hardy: The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy.'' New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), 2003. * Hedgcock, F. A., ''Thomas Hardy: penseur et artiste.'' Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1911. * Holland, Clive. ''Thomas Hardy O.M.: The Man, His Works and the Land of Wessex.'' London: Herbert Jenkins, 1933. * Jedrzejewski, Jan. ''Thomas Hardy and the Church.'' London: Macmillan, 1996. * Johnson, Lionel Pigot. ''The art of Thomas Hardy'' (London: E. Mathews, 1894). * Kay-Robinson, Denys. ''The First Mrs Thomas Hardy.'' London: Macmillan, 1979. * Langbaum, Robert. "Thomas Hardy in Our Time." New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995, London: Macmillan, 1997. * Marroni, Francesco, "The Negation of Eros in 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' ", in "Thomas Hardy Journal", 10, 1 (February 1994) pp. 33–41 * Marroni, Francesco and Norman Page (eds.), ''Thomas Hardy''. Pescara: Edizioni Tracce, 1995. * Marroni, Francesco, ''La poesia di Thomas Hardy''. Bari: Adriatica Editrice, 1997. * Marroni, Francesco, "The Poetry of Ornithology in Keats, Leopardi, and Hardy: A Dialogic Analysis", in "Thomas Hardy Journal", 14, 2 (May 1998) pp. 35–44 * Millgate, Michael (ed.). ''The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy.'' London: Macmillan, 1984. * Millgate, Michael. ''Thomas Hardy: A Biography.'' New York: Random House, 1982. * Millgate, Michael. ''Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited.'' Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004. * Morgan, Rosemarie, (ed) The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Hardy, (Ashgate publishing), 2010. * Morgan, Rosemarie, (ed) The Hardy Review,(Maney Publishing), 1999–. * Morgan, Rosemarie, Student Companion to Thomas Hardy (Greenwood Press), 2006. * Morgan, Rosemarie, Cancelled Words: Rediscovering Thomas Hardy (Routledge, Chapman & Hall),1992 * Morgan, Rosemarie, Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy (Routledge & Kegan Paul), 1988; paperback: 1990. * Musselwhite, David, Social Transformations in Hardy's Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. * Norman, Andrew. ''Behind the Mask'', History Press, 2011. * O'Sullivan, Timothy. ''Thomas Hardy: An Illustrated Biography.'' London: Macmillan, 1975. * Orel, Harold. ''The Final Years of Thomas Hardy, 1912–1928.'' Lawrence:

University Press of Kansas The University Press of Kansas is a publisher located in Lawrence, Kansas. Operated by The University of Kansas, it represents the six state universities in the US state of Kansas: Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas ...

, 1976. * Orel, Harold. ''The Unknown Thomas Hardy.'' New York: St. Martin's, 1987. * Page, Norman, ed. ''Thomas Hardy Annual.'' No.1: 1982; No.2: 1984; No.3: 1985; No.4:1986; No.5; 1987. London: Macmillan, 1982–1987. * Phelps, Kenneth. ''The Wormwood Cup: Thomas Hardy in Cornwall.'' Padstow: Lodenek Press, 1975. * Pinion, F. B. ''Thomas Hardy: His Life and Friends.'' London: Palgrave, 1992. * Pite, Ralph. ''Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life.'' London: Picador, 2006. * Saxelby, F. Outwin. ''A Thomas Hardy dictionary : the characters and scenes of the novels and poems alphabetically arranged and described'' (London: G. Routledge, 1911). * Seymour-Smith, Martin. ''Hardy.'' London: Bloomsbury, 1994. * Stevens-Cox, J. ''Thomas Hardy: Materials for a Study of his Life, Times, and Works.'' St. Peter Port, Guernsey: Toucan Press, 1968. * Stevens-Cox, J. ''Thomas Hardy: More Materials for a Study of his Life, Times, and Works.'' St. Peter Port, Guernsey: Toucan Press, 1971. * Stewart, J. I. M. ''Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography.'' New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1971. * Taylor, Richard H. ''The Neglected Hardy: Thomas Hardy's Lesser Novels.'' London: Macmillan; New York: St Martin's Press, 1982. * Taylor, Richard H., ed. ''The Personal Notebooks of Thomas Hardy.'' London: Macmillan, 1979. * Tomalin, Claire. ''Thomas Hardy.'' New York: Penguin Press, 2006. * Turner, Paul. ''The Life of Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography.'' Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. * Weber, Carl J. ''Hardy of Wessex, his Life and Literary Career.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. * Wilson, Keith. ''Thomas Hardy on Stage.'' London: Macmillan, 1995. * Wilson, Keith, ed. ''Thomas Hardy Reappraised: Essays in Honour of Michael Millgate.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. * Wilson, Keith, ed. ''A Companion to Thomas Hardy.'' Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. * Wotton, George. Thomas Hardy: Towards A Materialist Criticism. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1985.

External links

;Digital collections * * * *
Thomas Hardy
at the

A Hyper-Concordance to the Works of Thomas Hardy
at the Victorian Literary Studies Archive, Nagoya University, Japan ;Physical collections
Dorset County Museum
Dorchester, Dorset, contains the largest Hardy collections in the world, donated directly to the Museum by the Hardy family and inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register for the United Kingdom.
Thomas Hardy Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Thomas Hardy
at the British Library

Retrieved 25 May 2015. ;Biographical information * [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/1968-theatre-censorship/1909-censorship-committee/ Thomas Hardy & 1909 Theatre Censorship Committee - UK Parliament Living Heritage] ;Geographic information
Hardy's Cottage
National Trust visitor information for Hardy's birthplace.
Hardy Country
A visitor guide for 'Hardy Country' in Dorset (sites of interest).
Max Gate
National Trust visitor information for Max Gate (the home Hardy designed, lived and died in). ;Other links
The Thomas Hardy Association
(TTHA)
The Thomas Hardy Society

The New Hardy Players
Theatrical group specialising in the works of Thomas Hardy. * *
''The Dynasts'' on Great War Theatre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Thomas 1840 births 1928 deaths 19th-century British short story writers 19th-century English novelists 19th-century English poets 20th-century English writers Alumni of King's College London Anti-vivisectionists British male poets Burials at Westminster Abbey English male novelists English male short story writers English short story writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Members of the Order of Merit Pantheists People from Dorchester, Dorset Philosophical pessimists Victorian novelists Victorian poets Presidents of the Society of Authors