Brief Biography of Thomas Hardy

➢ He is called realist and novelist of Victorian age and poet of modern age.
➢ He was born at Dorset, England in 1840.
➢ He was the son of stonemason, a person who cuts and hews stone to build houses.
➢ Jemima was his mother who was his early teacher, teaching him at home.
➢ He was sent to a local architect named James Hicks to learn architecture at the age of sixteen.
➢ In 1862 he went to king’s college London to get the degree of an architect.
➢ He was given prizes and awards by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
➢ Living and practicing at London he found class distinction around him.
➢ Gap of upper class and lower class made him feel inferior that disturbed him mentally.
➢ This disturbance urged him to make efforts to bring social reforms as a reformer.
➢ John Stuart Mill’s Essay on Liberty was cure Hardy’s despair. He said in 1924, “my pages
show harmony of view with Mill.”
➢ Matthew Arnold and Leslie Stephan also attracted Thomas Hardy a lot.
➢ In 1970 after getting married with Emma Gifford, Hardy moved to Max Gate in his home
designed by him and constructed by his brother. Now that home is open for visitors.
➢ Long Happy marriage of Hardy and Emma ended at the death of Emma in 1912.
➢ Hardy felt this death to his heart and composed poetry for his wife in 1912-13 that got
popularity.
➢ To fill the gloomy chamber of his heart after the death of his wife Hardy married his secretary
Emily.
➢ Emily was really too young, about 39 years when she married him and was children stories
writer.
➢ Hardy was also nominated for Nobel prize for literature.
➢ First world war made Thomas Hardy so upset. He wrote to John Galsworthy, “the exchange
of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world.”
➢ Hardy became ill with pleurisy in December 1927 and died at Max Gate, Dorchester, January
1928 and was buried near his wife on his request.
➢ His heart was buried near his wife Emma but his ashes in the Poets’ Corner on the request of
his relative Sydney Cockerell.
➢ Hardy’s second wife Emily made his biography “The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841-
1891” published.
➢ William Wordsworth influenced Hardy very much and Hardy influenced D.H. Lawrance,
Virginia Woolf, Philip Larkin, W.B.Yeats and Robert Frost.
➢ Hardy’s first novel was The Poor Man and The Lady, 1867. The novel never got published.
➢ Hardy’s friend George Meredith, another writer, advised him to write a more shapely and less
opinionated novel and not to give the “The Poor Man and The Lady” novel to publisher as it
was so controversial politically that may be the cause of ban on Hardy’s writings afterwards.
➢ Hardy burnt the manuscripts of his novel The Poor Man and The Lady.
➢ Hardy’s two densely plotted novels Desperate Remedies (1871) and Under the Greenwood
Tree (1872) were published with the name of Anonymous writer (unknown writer).
➢ The first novel that was published with his name was The Pair of Blu Eyes in 1873. He drew
his wife’s character in this novel.
➢ Thomas hardy was the originator of the technique “Cliffhanger” publish writings in
installment that was taken by Charles Dickens for his novels.
➢ Hardy’ the most famous and successful novel that changed his mind totally to leave the
profession of an architect and to adopt writing novels was “Far from Madding Crowd” (1874).
➢ He wrote The Return of the Native in 1878, Two on a Tower in 1882, The Mayor of
Casterbridge in 1886, The Woodlanders in 1887.
➢ Thomas Hardy’ first controversial but very outstanding novel was Tess to the d’Urbervilles
(1891).
➢ The most controversial novel after which hardy stopped writing novels was “Jude the
Obscure” published in 1895.
➢ He took the theme of sex, politics religion and marriage very harshly. The novel was criticized
so bitterly by the critics even C.H.Sissen called it superficial and absurd novel.
➢ He calls his novels Wessex Novels for their setting in Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom
➢ He devoted himself for writing poetry 1898 to 1928 after leaving novel writing he got his 8
volumes of poetry published.
➢ His first volume “Wessex Poems and other verses” which he was writing for last 30 years was
published in 1898. He wrote Lyrics, Ballads, Satires, Dramatic monologues.
➢ He also composed war poetry that influenced Philip Larkin in particular.
➢ Hardy’s famous war poem was “The Man He Killed”, written in an ordinary soldier’s point of
view that influenced Rupert Brooke.
➢ We can find Hardy’s influence on D. H. Lawrance in his novels, “Rainbow” and “Woman in
Love”.
➢ Hardy wrote a poetic Drama named The Dynasts 1903-08.
➢ The drama contains 3 parts, 19 acts and 130 scenes.
➢ Thomas Hardy also wrote about Napoleonic Wars.
Azhar Ud Deen Babar (M.Phil. English Linguistics)