Thomas Hardy |
| To see current stock by Thomas
Hardy click
here |
| |
| Thomas Hardy III, of Dorchester, Dorset, was born on the
2nd of June 1840, in what he liked to call a seven-roomed
house at higher Brockhampton. The house was built by his
grandfather (also named Thomas Hardy). |
| Illegitimately conceived, Hardy was born less than 6 months
after his father married his mother. After a difficult labour,
his mother was told that they thought her baby was dead.
A mid-wife later found him in a basket - alive! It appears
that these facts would influence Hardy's later obsession
with the Victorian class differences. |
| |
During his youth, Hardy used to love to
go walking with his father on the local wild heath. Here
he would learn about nature. These early excursions would
later lead him to set many of his famous novels in like
surroundings and his long detailed descriptions of the
countryside are something that Hardy became famous for.
Local folklore and traditions, passed on from his grandmother
and mother, would also prove invaluable to his writing.
Many famous Hardy characters, for example, Bathsheba Everden
in 'Far from the Madding Crowd' and the dairymaid Marian
in 'Tess of the d'urbervilles, are said to have been based
on people that Hardy met during his life. |
| An avid reader, Hardy made the most of his
education. He would search out the classics of the time,
such as Shakespeare's tragedies. His passion for learning
motivated him to ask for extra tutoring in Latin, which
his parents agreed to. The tutoring paid off and at the
age of 13, he won the Latin prize in his school. Hardy's
education was extended beyond the normal age for boys of
his time. At age 13, when his peers would have been going
to work, his parents allowed him to continue his education
at his Latin teacher's new school. As well as Latin, he
also learned German, French and Maths. Later he considered
a university career, but decided that making some money
so as to try and further his writing career, was more important. |
| From an early age, Hardy fell in and out
of love frequently, often after just one brief encounter
with the girl or woman of the moment. He was attracted
by pretty women, wherever he saw them and never forgot
a pretty face, even writing poems about some of his encounters
years later.. (An example of this would be his poem 'Louisa
In the Lane'). Like Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,
it appears that perhaps the young Hardy was more in love
with the notion of being in love than the actual feeling
and emotion itself.
During 1856-1862 Hardy's first published writings were
articles written for the Dorset Chronicle. These were
about the church restorations carried out by his then
employer, John Hicks, who he started working for when
he was 16.
In 1862, Hardy moved from Dorset to London, where he
worked very briefly as a draughtsman, before acquiring
a job in the office of Arthur Bloomfield, a reputable
London architect of the time. He worked |
|
| there until 1867 and after leaving London, due to
his continuing disillusionment with the town and bouts
of ill health, he returned to work at Hick's Dorchester
office.
Although Hardy thought novels to be an inferior 'genre'
to poetry, money became a bigger issue; so he took to
writing novels which enabled him to continue writing his
poetry. Between August 1867 and June 1868, Hardy embarked
on writing his first, never to be published, novel, The
Poor Man and The Lady, described by Hardy as a 'striking
socialist novel'. From what is known about the text, the
story was about love across the social divides. |
 |
Written in the first person,
it seems that much was taken directly from what had happened
in Hardy's life up to that point. It showed his view on
the one subject that appeared to be his continued obsession:
class differences.The text was rejected by Macmillan, who
said that it promoted 'thoughtless generalisations and hostilities'
towards the well-to-do classes. After trying several other
publishers, Hardy eventually shelved the book and later
even destroyed the text, when overcome by disillusionment.
However, he did use many ideas and actually even re-used
parts of the text for the novella 'An Indiscretion In The
Life of an Heiress'.
|
| In 1871, Hardy's 1st published novel appeared entitled
'Desperate Remedies'. It bore many similarities to his first
unpublished novel and had much of its sexuality toned down,
compared to the original text. After mixed reviews, the
book was remaindered after only 3 months. Now, the original
3 volumes, published anonymously by Tinsley Brothers, in
very good condition can demand upwards of £20,000
for the set. |
| Over 3 decades Hardy was to write
a further 14 novels:
1. Desperate Remedies
2. Under The Greenwood Tree
3. A Pair of Blue Eyes
4. Far From The Madding Crowd
5. The Hand of Ethelberta
6. The Return of The Native
7. The Trumpet-Major
8. A Laodicean
9. Two On A Tower
10. The Mayor of Casterbridge
11. The Woodlanders
12. Tess of The d'Urbervilles
13. Jude The Obscure
14. The Well-Beloved
|
 |
| These first appeared in serial form in popular literary
magazines of the time, like the 'Cornhill' and the 'Graphic'.
Later many of them would be published in volume sets and
still later in single volumes.
His first three novels were not very successful; not
making him much money or gaining him critical acclaim
as a writer. It wasn't until the publication in 1874,
of 'Far From The Madding Crowd', that Hardy saw the fruits
of his labour rewarded. This novel came to be one of Hardy's
most celebrated works, with its honest view of nineteenth
century agricultural life and some of the most vivid characters
in all Victorian fiction. |
 |
| In 1870, whilst working on a restoration of a church in
St. Juliot Cornwall, Hardy met his first wife, Emma Lavinia
Gifford. In true Hardy style, he is said to have fallen
instantly in love with her 'striking figure, golden curls
and rosy colour'. He was also captivated by her impulsiveness
and her love of poetry and of Hardy himself as a writer.
They were married in 1874 and spent time at different locations,
including lodgings in Dorset and Somerset, but they would
also travel abroad to Europe. In 1885 they moved into Max
Gate - a house on the outskirts of Dorchester, which Hardy
designed himself and was built by his brother. This became
their permanent residence. The Hardys remained married for
40 years, although not all of these were happy years as
it appears that the very things that brought them together
put a strain on their marriage in later life. Emma Hardy
died suddenly in 1912 after which Hardy wrote one of his
most moving poems: The Phantom Horsewoman'. Later in 1914,
Hardy remarried, to a woman named Florence Dugdale, who
he would remain married to until his death on January 11th
1928. |
 |
| Although sometimes people just recognise
Hardy for the famous novels he wrote, it was from writing
his poetry that he appeared to gain the most enjoyment.
In his lifetime his poems numbered roughly 1,000. His short
stories, of which he wrote over 50, give the reader a glimpse
into the world of Hardy's writing. A good example of this
is the short story 'The Withered Arm', where you see the
rustic life and the interweaving of the traditional folklore
that Hardy learned about from his mother and grandmother.
Through his determination and devotion to his obsession
of writing about things that he knew, Hardy has become
one of literature's most celebrated authors. His literature
has now been studied, analyzed and enjoyed for generations
and will continue to be so for generations to come. |
| Contributed by Joanne Hill
|
|
