Thomas Hardy

For other uses, seeThomas Hardy (disambiguation).

Thomas HardyOM(2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. AVictorian realistin the tradition ofGeorge Eliot,he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry byRomanticism,including the poetry ofWilliam Wordsworth.He was highly critical of much inVictoriansociety, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain such as those from his nativeSouth West England.

Thomas Hardy OM
Hardy between about 1910 and 1915
Born	(1840-06-02)2 June 1840 Stinsford,Dorset, England
Died	11 January 1928(1928-01-11)(aged 87) Dorchester, Dorset,England
Resting place	Stinsford parish church (heart) Poets' Corner,Westminster Abbey (ashes)
Occupation	Novelist poet short story writer
Alma mater	King's College London
Literary movement	Naturalism Victorian literature
Notable works	Tess of the d'Urbervilles Far from the Madding Crowd The Mayor of Casterbridge The Return of the Native Collected Poems Jude the Obscure
Spouse	Emma Gifford ​ ​ (m.1874; died 1912)​ Florence Dugdale ​ (m.1914)​
Signature

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 asFar from the Madding Crowd(1874),The Mayor of Casterbridge(1886),Tess of the d'Urbervilles(1891) andJude the Obscure(1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly theGeorgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded byEzra Pound,W. H. AudenandPhilip 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 ofWessex;initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom,Hardy's Wessexeventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in south-west and south central England. Two of his novels,Tess of the d'UrbervillesandFar from the Madding Crowd,were listed in the top 50 on theBBC's surveyThe Big Read.

Life and career

Early life

"The Hardy Tree", aGreat Tree of LondoninOld St Pancraschurchyard in London, growing between gravestones moved while Hardy was working there. The tree fell in December 2022.

Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (then Upper Bockhampton), a hamlet in the parish ofStinsfordto the east ofDorchesterin Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (1811–1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder. His parents had married atMelbury Osmondon 22 December 1839.His mother, Jemima (née Hand; 1813–1904),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.He worked on the design of the new church at nearby Athelhampton, situated just oppositeAthelhampton Housewhere he painted a watercolour of the Tudor gatehouse while visiting his father, who was repairing the masonry of the dovecote.

He moved to London in 1862 where he enrolled as a student atKing's College London.He won prizes from theRoyal Institute of British Architectsand theArchitectural Association.He joinedArthur Blomfield's practice as assistant architect in April 1862 and worked with Blomfield on Christ Church, East SheenRichmond, Londonwhere the tower collapsed in 1863, and All Saints' parish church inWindsor, Berkshire,in 1862–64. Areredos,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 ofSt Pancras Old Churchbefore its destruction when theMidland Railwaywas extended to a new terminus atSt 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 ofJohn Stuart Mill.He was introduced by his Dorset friendHorace Mouleto the works ofCharles FourierandAuguste Comte.Mill's essayOn Libertywas 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 toMatthew Arnold's andLeslie Stephen's ideal of the urbane liberal freethinker.

After five years, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset, settling inWeymouth,and decided to dedicate himself to writing.

Personal

Max Gate in 2015

In 1870, while on an architectural mission to restore theparish church of St Juliotin Cornwall,Hardy met and fell in love withEmma Gifford,whom he married in Kensington in late 1874,renting St David's Villa, Southborough (nowSurbiton) for a year. In 1885 Thomas and his wife moved intoMax GateinDorchester,a house designed by Hardy and built by his brother. Although they became estranged, Emma's 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; hisPoems 1912–13reflect upon her death. In 1914, Hardy married his secretaryFlorence 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 aWire Fox Terriernamed 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 theOrder of Meritand was also for the first time nominated for theNobel Prize in Literature.He was nominated again for the prize 11 years later and received a total of 25 nominations until 1927.He was at least once, in 1923, one of the final candidates for the prize, but was not awarded.

Hardy and the theatre

Hardy's interest in the theatre dated from the 1860s. He corresponded with various would-be adapters over the years, includingRobert Louis Stevensonin 1886 andJack Greinand 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 andComyns Carr's adaptation ofFar from the Madding Crowdin 1882 left him wary of the damage that adaptations could do to his literary reputation. So, 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 becomethe 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 successof 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 playThe Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall atTintagelinLyonnesse(1923) was written to be performed by the Hardy Players.

Later years

Florence Hardy at the seashore, 1915

From the 1880s, Hardy became increasingly involved in campaigns to save ancient buildings from destruction, or destructive modernisation, and he became an early member of theSociety for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.His correspondence refers to his unsuccessful efforts to prevent major alterations to the parish church at Puddletown, close to his home at Max Gate. He became a frequent visitor atAthelhampton House,which he knew from his teenage years, and in his letters he encouraged the owner, Alfred Cart de Lafontaine, to conduct the restoration of that building in a sensitive way.

In 1914, Hardy was one of fifty-three leading British authors—includingH. G. Wells,Rudyard Kiplingand SirArthur Conan Doyle—who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration", justifying Britain's involvement in theFirst World War.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 toJohn Galsworthythat "the exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world."

Hardy became ill withpleurisyin December 1927 and died atMax Gatejust 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 atWestminster Abbey,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, SirSydney Carlyle Cockerell,insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famousPoets' 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 (equivalent to £7,300,000 in 2023).

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. The opening chapter ofThe Mayor of Casterbridge,for example, written in 1886, was based on press reports of wife-selling.In the year of his death Mrs Hardy publishedThe 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, includingD. H. Lawrence,John Cowper PowysandVirginia Woolf.In his autobiographyGood-Bye to All That(1929),Robert Gravesrecalls 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'sbirthplace in Bockhamptonand his houseMax Gate,both in Dorchester, are owned by theNational Trust.

Novels

Thomas Hardy'sbirthplace and cottageat Higher Bockhampton, whereUnder the Greenwood TreeandFar from the Madding Crowdwere written

View of theRiver Fromefrom the bridge atLower Bockhampton.InTess of the d'Urbervillesthe lowland vale of the river is described as the Vale of the Great Dairies, in comparison to Tess's home, the fertileVale of Blackmore,which is the Vale of Little Dairies.

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 novelistGeorge Meredith,who felt thatThe Poor Man and the Ladywould 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 inLife 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) andUnder 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 1873A Pair of Blue Eyes,a novel drawing on Hardy's courtship of Emma, was published under his own name. A plot device popularised byCharles Dickens,the term "cliffhanger"is considered to have originated with the serialised version ofA Pair of Blue Eyes(published inTinsley's Magazinebetween 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 asDesperate Remedies(1871),Far from the Madding Crowd(1874) andTwo on a Tower(1882).

InFar from the Madding Crowd,Hardy first introduced the idea of calling the region in the west of England, where his novels are set,Wessex.Wessex had been the name of an earlySaxonkingdom, in approximately the same part of England.Far from the Madding Crowdwas 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, Hardy moved from London toYeovil,and then toSturminster Newton,where he wroteThe Return of the Native(1878).In 1880, Hardy published his only historical novel,The Trumpet-Major.A further move to Wimborne saw Hardy writeTwo on a Tower,published in 1882, a romance story set in the world of astronomy. Then in 1885, they moved for the last time, toMax Gate,a house outside Dorchester designed by Hardy and built by his brother. There he wroteThe Mayor of Casterbridge(1886),The Woodlanders(1887) andTess 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.

A major location ofThe Return of the Nativeas part of Hardy's fictionalEgdon Heath

Jude the Obscure,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 thatJude the Obscurewould be read as autobiographical. Some booksellers sold the novel in brown paper bags, andWalsham How,theBishop of Wakefield,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 [hostile] verdicts 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 bothTess of the d'UrbervillesandJude the Obscure.The Well-Beloved,first serialised in 1892, was published in 1897.

Literary themes

Caricature of Hardy inVanity Fair,4 June 1892

Hardy painted byWilliam Strang,1893

Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living inVictorian England,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 poetPhilip Larkinas central in Hardy's works:

What is the intensely maturing experience of which Hardy's modern man is most sensible? In my view it is suffering, or sadness, and extended consideration of the centrality of suffering in Hardy's work should be the first duty of the true critic for which the work is still waiting [...] Any approach to his work, as to any writer's work, must seek first of all to determine what element is peculiarly his, which imaginative note he strikes most plangently, and to deny that in this case it is the sometimes gentle, sometimes ironic, sometimes bitter but always passive apprehension of suffering is, I think, wrong-headed.

InTwo 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.

In a novel structured around contrasts, the main opposition is between Swithin St Cleeve and Lady Viviette Constantine, who are presented as binary figures in a series of ways: aristocratic and lower class, youthful and mature, single and married, fair and dark, religious and agnostic...she [Lady Viviette Constantine] is also deeply conventional, absurdly wishing to conceal their marriage until Swithin has achieved social status through his scientific work, which gives rise to uncontrolled ironies and tragic-comic misunderstandings.

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 Crowdis 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

Thomas Hardy byWalter William Ouless,1922

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 ofJude the Obscurein 1896, the poetC. H. Sissoncalls this "hypothesis" "superficial and absurd".In the twentieth century Hardy published only poetry.

Thomas Hardy publishedPoems of the Past and the Presentin 1901, which contains "The Darkling Thrush"(originally titled" The Century's End "), one of his best known poems about theturn of the century.

Thomas Hardy wrote in a great variety of poetic forms, includinglyrics,ballads,satire,dramatic monologuesand dialogue, as well as a three-volume epic closet dramaThe 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[ed] with 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 theBoer WarsandWorld 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 asRupert BrookeandSiegfried Sassoon.Hardy in these poems often used the viewpoint of ordinary soldiers and their colloquial speech.A theme in theWessex Poemsis the long shadow that theNapoleonic Warscast over the 19th century, as seen, for example, in "The Sergeant's Song" and "Leipzig".The Napoleonic War is the subject ofThe Dynasts.

Some of Hardy's more famous poems are fromPoems 1912–13,which later became part ofSatires 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 2007 biography on Hardy,Claire Tomalinargues 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."

A portrait of Thomas Hardy in 1923 byReginald Eves

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".Ironyis 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 ofvinkenzetting,reflect his firm stance against animal cruelty, exhibited in hisantivivisectionistviews and his membership in theRoyal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

A number of notable English composers, includingGerald Finzi,Benjamin Britten,Ralph Vaughan Williams,andGustav Holst,set poems by Hardy to music. Holst also wrote the orchestral tone poemEgdon Heath: A Homage to Thomas Hardyin 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, includingRobert Frost,W. H. Auden,Dylan ThomasandPhilip Larkin.Larkin included 27 poems by Hardy compared with only nine byT. S. Eliotin his edition ofThe Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Versein 1973.There were fewer poems byW. B. Yeats.Poet-criticDonald Davie'sThomas Hardy and English Poetryconsiders Hardy's contribution to ongoing poetic tradition at length and in creative depth. Davie's friendThom Gunnalso wrote on Hardy and acknowledged his stature and example.

Religious beliefs

Thomas Hardy aged 70, byWilliam Strang

Hardy's family wasAnglican,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 localChurch of Englandschool, instead being sent to Mr Last's school, three miles away. As a young adult, he befriendedHenry R. Bastow(aPlymouth Brethrenman), who also worked as a pupil architect, and who was preparing foradult baptismin theBaptist Church.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:

The Christian God – the external personality – has been replaced by the intelligence of the First Cause...the replacement of the old concept of God as all-powerful by a new concept of universal consciousness. The 'tribal god, man-shaped, fiery-faced and tyrannous' is replaced by the 'unconscious will of the Universe' which progressively grows aware of itself and 'ultimately, it is to be hoped, sympathetic'.

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,

Mr. Hardy regrets that he is unable to offer any hypothesis which would reconcile the existence of such evils as Dr. Grosart describes with the idea of omnipotent goodness. Perhaps Dr. Grosart might be helped to a provisional view of the universe by the recently publishedLife of Darwinand the works ofHerbert Spencerand other agnostics.

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.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 includedHorace Moule(one of the eight sons ofHenry Moule) and the poetWilliam 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 ofGideon Mantell.Moule gave Hardy a copy of Mantell's bookThe Wonders of Geology(1848) in 1858, and Adelene Buckland has suggested that there are "compelling similarities" between the "cliffhanger" section fromA Pair of Blue Eyesand Mantell's geological descriptions. It has also been suggested that the character of Henry Knight inA Pair of Blue Eyeswas based on Horace Moule.

Grave of Thomas Hardy's ashes inWestminster Abbey(foreground, next to that ofRudyard Kipling)

Grave of Thomas Hardy's heart atStinsfordparish church

Throughout his life, Hardy sought a rationale for believing in an afterlife or a timeless existence, turning first to spiritualists, such asHenri Bergson,and then toAlbert EinsteinandJ. M. E. McTaggart,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,and the Thomas Hardy's Wessexresearch site, which includes maps.

Influence

Hardy corresponded with and visitedLady Catherine Milnes GaskellatWenlock Abbeyand many of Lady Catherine's books are inspired by Hardy, who was very fond of her.

D. H. Lawrence'sStudy 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 centralmetaphysicbehind many of Hardy's novels, helped significantly in the development ofThe Rainbow(1915) andWomen in Love(1920).

Wood and Stone(1915), the first novel byJohn 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 novelMaiden Castle(1936) is set inDorchester,which was Hardy'sCasterbridge,and was intended by Powys to be a "rival" to Hardy'sThe Mayor of Casterbridge.Maiden Castleis the last of Powys's so-called Wessex novels,Wolf Solent(1929),A Glastonbury Romance(1932) andWeymouth Sands(1934), which are set in Somerset and Dorset.

Hardy was clearly the starting point for the character of the novelist Edward Driffield inW. Somerset Maugham's novelCakes and Ale(1930).Thomas Hardy's works also feature prominently in the American playwrightChristopher Durang'sThe Marriage of Bette and Boo(1985), in which a graduate thesis analysingTess of the d'Urbervillesis interspersed with analysis of Matt's family's neuroses.

Thesymphonic poemsMai-DunbyJohn Ireland(1921) andEgdon HeathbyGustav Holst(1927) evoke the landscape of Hardy's novels.

Hardy has been a significant influence on Nigel Blackwell, frontman of thepost-punkBritish rock bandHalf Man Half Biscuit,who has often incorporated phrases (some obscure) by or about Hardy into his song lyrics.

Works

The title page from afirst editionofFar from the Madding Crowd(1874)

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 Mayor of Casterbridge:The Life and Death of a Man of Character(1886)
• The Woodlanders(1887)
• Wessex Tales(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)
• Jude the Obscure(1895)

Romances and fantasies

Further information:Romance (literary fiction)

• A Pair of Blue Eyes: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 withFlorence Henniker.An additional short-story collection, beyond the ones mentioned above, isA 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, asThe Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–91andThe Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892–1928,now published in a critical one-volume edition asThe 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 inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "The Distracted Preacher" (1879) (collected inWessex Tales)
• "Fellow-Townsmen" (1880) (collected inWessex Tales)
• "The Honourable Laura" (1881) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "What the Shepherd Saw" (1881) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four" (1882) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The Three Strangers"(1883) (collected inWessex Tales)
• "The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid" (1883) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "Interlopers at the Knap" (1884) (collected inWessex Tales)
• "A Mere Interlude"(1885) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "A Tryst at an Ancient Earthwork" (1885) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "Alicia's Diary"(1887) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "The Waiting Supper" (1887–88) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "The Withered Arm" (1888) (collected inWessex Tales)
• "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions"(1888) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The First Countess of Wessex" (1889) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "Anna, Lady Baxby" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "The Lady Icenway" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "Lady Mottisfont" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "The Lady Penelope" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "The Marchioness of Stonehenge" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "Squire Petrick's Lady" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "Barbara of the House of Grebe" (1890) (collected inA Group of Noble Dames)
• "The Melancholy Hussar of The German Legion" (1890) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The Winters and the Palmleys" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "For Conscience' Sake" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "Incident in the Life of Mr. George Crookhill" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The Doctor's Legend" (1891)
• "Andrey Satchel and the Parson and Clerk" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The History of the Hardcomes" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "Netty Sargent's Copyhold" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "On the Western Circuit" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "A Few Crusted Characters: Introduction" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The Superstitious Man's Story" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "To Please His Wife" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "The Son's Veto" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "Old Andrey's Experience as a Musician" (1891) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "Our Exploits At West Poley"(1892–93)
• "Master John Horseleigh, Knight" (1893) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "The Fiddler of the Reels"(1893) (collected inLife's Little Ironies)
• "An Imaginative Woman" (1894) (collected inWessex Tales,1896 edition)
• "The Spectre of the Real" (1894)
• "A Committee-Man of 'The Terror'" (1896) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "The Duke's Reappearance" (1896) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "The Grave by the Handpost" (1897) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "A Changed Man" (1900) (collected inA Changed Man and Other Stories)
• "Enter a Dragoon" (1900) (collected inA 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 HardyatPoetry Foundationand Poems by Thomas Hardy at poemhunter.com

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 atTintagelin Lyonnesse(1923) (one-act play)

Biographies and criticism

• Armstrong, Tim. "Player Piano: Poetry and Sonic Modernity" inModernism/Modernity14.1 (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.ISBN0-900341-44-0
• 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 inUnder the Greenwood Tree,inThe 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" inThe 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, 1892–1928London: Macmillan, 1930.
• Harvey, Geoffrey.Thomas Hardy: The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy.New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), 2003.
• Hawkins, Desmond.Thomas Hardy.London: Arthur Barker, 1950. (The English Novelists series)
• 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,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.ISBN978-0-7524-5630-0
• 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,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

• Works by Thomas Hardy in eBook formatStandard Ebooks
• Works by Thomas HardyatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Thomas HardyatInternet Archive
• Works by Thomas HardyatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Thomas Hardyat thePoetry Foundation
• A Hyper-Concordance to the Works of Thomas Hardyat the Victorian Literary Studies Archive, Nagoya University, Japan

Physical collections

• Dorset 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 Collectionat theHarry Ransom Centerat theUniversity of Texas at Austin
• Thomas Hardyat the British Library
• Letter from Hardy to Bertram Windle, transcribed by Birgit Plietzsch, fromCollected Letters,vol 2, pp.131–133.Retrieved 25 May 2015.

Biographical information

• Thomas Hardy & 1909 Theatre Censorship Committee - UK Parliament Living Heritage

Geographic information

• Hardy's CottageNational Trust visitor information for Hardy's birthplace.
• Hardy CountryA visitor guide for 'Hardy Country' in Dorset (sites of interest).
• Max GateNational 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 PlayersTheatrical group specialising in the works of Thomas Hardy.
• Newspaper clippings about Thomas Hardyin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW
• Thomas HardyatCurlie
• The Dynastson Great War Theatre