Category: Classics

Lifespan: (June 2, 1840 - January 11, 1928)

Interesting & Unique Facts: Hardy saw himself as a poet first and only wrote novels for financial gain. Much of his works are set in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex and many of his characters struggle against their passions and circumstances. His wife's death in 1912 had a traumatic effect on him.

His will stated that he wnated to be buried with his first wife but his executor wanted him buried in the Poet's Corner. A compromise was reached; his heart was buried with his first wife and his ashes in the Poet's Corner.

Author's work in order (with publication dates):

Note: [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• The Poor Man and the Lady (1867) [unpublished and lost]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 (1872)
• Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
• The Return of the Native (1878)
• The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
• The Woodlanders (1887)
• Wessex Tales (1888) [a collection of short stories]
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
• Life's Little Ironies (1894) [a collection of short stories]
• Jude the Obscure (1895)

Romances and Fantasies

• A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
• The Trumpet-Major (1880)
• Two on a Tower (1882)
• A Group of Noble Dames (1891) [a collection of short stories]
• The Well-Beloved (1897) [first published as a serial from 1892]

Novels of Ingenuity

• Desperate Remedies (1871)
• The Hand of Ethelberta (1876)
• A Laodicean (1881)