Thomas Hardy Writer

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). However, beginning in the 1950s Hardy has been recognised as a major poet; he had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Philip Larkin.Most of his fictional works – initially published as serials in magazines – were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. They explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England.

Personal facts

Birth date	June 02, 1840
Birth place	Dorset , Dorchester Dorset , Stinsford
Date of death	January 11, 1928
Place of death	Dorset , Dorchester Dorset
Resting place	Poets' Corner , Westminster Abbey
Education	King's College London
Spouse	Emma Lavinia Gifford Florence Dugdale

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Writer

influenced	Robert Frost Robinson Jeffers D. H. Lawrence Philip Larkin Siegfried Sassoon W. H. Auden W. D. Snodgrass John Fowles
influenced by	Arthur Schopenhauer Charles Dickens Charlotte Brontë Thomas Gray George Meredith
movement	Victorian literature Naturalism (literature)
notable work	Far from the Madding Crowd Tess of the d'Urbervilles Jude the Obscure