Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

• 1840-1928
• “Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
• And I was unaware.”

Novelist and Poet

• First known as a novelist, Hardy’s novels capture the flavor of life in rural Dorset, as well as the inner lives of his memorable characters

Early Life

Childhood

• Born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset on June 2,1840.
• Eldest child of builder, Thomas Hardy II and his wife, Jemima Hand.
• Three more children followed him.
• The young Hardy was deeply influenced by the natural world around him.

Education and Profession

• Hardy attended local school until he was apprenticed to a Dorchester architect at 15.
• After six years apprenticeship, Hardy went to London in 1861.
• Hardy read widely in London and became interested in fiction and poetry while practicing architecture.

Return to Dorset

• Hardy returned to Dorset as an architect and builder.
• He continued to write, and by 1871 had published his first novel.
• He married Emma Gifford in 1874.

Major Novels

• Under the Greenwood Tree 1872
• A Pair of Blue Eyes 1873
• Far from the Madding Crowd 1874
• The Return of the Native 1878
• The Mayor of Casterbridge 1886
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles 1891
• Jude the Obscure 1896

Why did he stop writing novels?

• The subject matter of Hardy’s novels, which to modern eyes seems pretty tame, outraged many Victorians.
• Jude the Obscure was deemed “Jude the Obscene” and was publicly burned by the Bishop of Wakefield.
• Henry James said it was a disgusting book on a disgusting subject.

So…

• Public perception about Hardy’s view of marriage and religion caused a huge outcry and widened rifts between Hardy and his wife, Emma.
• He was widely condemned in the papers and in critical writing.
• After Jude, Hardy writes only poetry and some drama.

Major Themes in Hardy

• Man’s impotence against greater forces—of nature, of society, of his own impulses.
• A shaken, if not completely fractured view of the relationship between humans and God.
• Pessimism? Hardy prefers the term “meliorism,” that is the belief that the word CAN be made better by human effort.

More Hardy themes

• Sadness?
• Waste and frustration?
• Naturalism
• An overwhelming feeling of irony
• “Life’s Little Ironies” published in 1894

Emma Gifford Hardy

• At first, the Hardys seemed to have a happy marriage, but they drifted seriously apart.
• They had no children, and Hardy, though probably physically faithful, had a wandering eye.

Emma Hardy in later years

• Emma came to resent Hardy’s growing fame as well as the demands that put on their marriage.
• She died in 1912, and Hardy mourned her forever, it seems.
• The “Emma poems” are among his finest.

Thomas and Florence

• In 1914, Hardy married Florence Dugdale, his long-time secretary. (1879-1937)
• He is 39 years older than her.
• Hardy dies in 1928.