Thomas Hardy facts for kids

For British movie actor who starred in The Dark Knight Rises, see Tom Hardy.

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. In the United Kingdom, Hardy is generally thought to be one of the greatest figures in English literature.

Thomas Hardy was born in Upper Bockhampton near Dorchester, Dorset. His father was a stonemason. His mother was ambitious and had read a lot. She added to his formal education. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London to get a job. He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association.

Hardy wrote a small number of novels which earned him a high reputation in his lifetime. These include Tess of the Durbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Far from the Madding Crowd. After the publication of Jude the Obscure in 1895 Hardy gave up novel writing but continued to write poetry including an epic poem called The Dynasts. Hardy set his novels in South West England, calling it Wessex, and inventing names for individual towns, e.g. Casterbridge is Dorchester in Dorset. Hardy died in Dorchester. His ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey.

Images for kids

"The Hardy Tree" in Old St Pancras churchyard, growing between gravestones moved while Hardy was working there
Florence Hardy at the seashore, 1915
View of the River Frome from the bridge at Lower Bockhampton. In Tess of the d'Urbervilles the lowland vale of the river is described as the Vale of the Great Dairies, in comparison to Tess's home, the fertile Vale of Blackmore, which is the Vale of Little Dairies.
A major location of The Return of the Native as part of Hardy's fictional Egdon Heath.
Hardy painted by William Strang, 1893
Thomas Hardy by Walter William Ouless, 1922
A portrait of Thomas Hardy in 1923
Thomas Hardy aged 70, by William Strang
The title page from a first edition of Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
Thomas Hardy's birthplace and cottage at Higher Bockhampton, where Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd were written
Grave of Thomas Hardy's heart at Stinsford parish church