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Hardy<-novels<-chapter 7<-contents<-position

6. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Life
    Thomas Hardy was the last important novelist of the Victorian Age. He was born and grew up in Dorset, a rural area in the southern England on July 2, 1840. His mother had ever been a servant in hope of success of his son in society, and she supported Hardy’s education. His father and her grandfather were architects and it was expected that he would do that job also. Therefore he at first took up his father’s profession. But Hardy excelled in his academic studies. At the age of 16, Hardy leaned architect and then French, German, Latin and Greece. After receiving education in Dorset, he went to London at the age of 21 and stayed there for 6 years, during which he sensed the cant and hypocrisy of upper class, and observed the vices and evils concealed in the prosperous city. The sharp contrast between cant city and simple country made him share the same knowledge and the intimate feelings of his fellow countrymen and developed a sharp eye to see the growing advance of industrialism would bring new belief which would have big impact on the old customs and moral belief in the country. The town was enriching on the country. These ideas are the major theme of his novel. Meanwhile, Hardy read numerous works and was influenced by the works The Origin of Species. Hardy liked music and experienced the joyful feast for harvest in the country, which later gave expression to his novel. When Hardy was in London, he gave up architecture and turned to literature. At first, he attempted to write poetry, but was rejected by publishing company one after another. Then he began to write novels about rural life of Wessex in the south west of England and completed his first novel The poor man and the lady in 1868 that did not meet success and was lost finally. In his life Hardy created 15 novels, among which the most outstanding ones are Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. However, his novels met serious critical comments from bourgeois critics and reader, for his novels criticized the social reality. Therefore, Hardy was forced to give up writing novels in 1898 and turned to poetry in which he still held the critical attitude toward the society. Besides novels and poems, Hardy wrote his epic drama in verse The Dynasts. Thus, Hardy is seen as a great novelist as well as a poet.
Hardy, the last important novelist of the Victoria Age, was in the traditional period of 19th century and 20th century. As an influential novelist and poet, Hardy helped to form a link between the 19th century and 20th century literary traditions. Therefore, he is not only a defender of art of British traditional novels, but also is suggested vaguely an advocator of art of modern novels. He foresees modernism in approaching century. Hardy is one of the few writers in English history who make significant contributions to English literature in the form of the novel, poetry, and the short story. His works is full of unforgettable characters, tragic stories with coincidences of plots, striking languages and his descriptions of the Wessex life. All of these make him an enduring writer in English literature history.

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