Thomas Hardy

1. THOMAS HARDY
THOMAS HARDY WAS BORN IN 1840 IN THE
ENGLISH VILLAGE OF HIGHER BOCKHAMPTON
IN THE COUNTY OF DORSET.
HARDY STRONGLY IDENTIFIES HIMSELF AND
HIS WORK WITH DORSET’S POOR AND RURAL
CONDITION.
DORSET PROVIDED HARDY WITH MATERIAL
FOR HIS FICTION AND POETRY, HE EXPLORED
IT THROUGH THE RUSTIC CHARACTERS IN
MANY OF HIS NOVELS.

2. Hardy called the fictional setting for his
poems and novels The Wessex, created
after historical Anglo-Saxon Britain.

3. the Stonehenge, also influences Hardy,
especially as a poet. He explored the
ancient and medieval ruin to learn about
Druid and Roman.

4. Hardy’s interest in history also extended to the Napoleonic
Wars, which he considered one of the great events of the
historical past. This inspire one of his epic, The Dynasts,
a huge poetic drama in 3 parts, 19 acts, and 130 scenes.
It presents Hardy’s idea of “evolutionary meliorism,” the hope
that human action could make life better.

5. Hardy rejected the Victorian belief in a
loving God, and much of his poetry were
focused on the patheticness of the human
condition.
Hardy’s great novels, including Tess of the
D’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure
(1895) received negative reviews, Hardy was
criticized for being too pessimistic and
preoccupied with sex.
He left fiction writing for poetry, and published
eight collections, including Wessex Poems (1898)
and Satires of Circumstance (1912).

6. Harbinger of the Modern Age in
Poetry
Thomas Hardy's poetry has great impact upon
modern day writers due to its ability to survive
the numerous changes of literary fashion.
He writes in a style does not struggle to discover
and assimilate the literary past, but rather does
so with ease.
He maintains that though the poet may sound
Victorian yet Modern at the same time, his work
has a "lasting poetic authority and inventiveness"
which has influenced numerous contemporary
writers.

7. He died at his home in Dorchester on 1928. His heart is
buried in the cemetery of St. Michael's Church in
Stinsford, Dorset, and his ashes were interred in Poet's
Corner of Westminster Abbey, London, England.