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Thomas Hardy

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Thomas Hardy


Born
in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, England
June 02, 1840

Died
January 11, 1928

Genre
Fiction, Poetry

Influences
Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, John Milton, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Bro ...more


Thomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain.

The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. In the novel, Hardy chos ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.87 · 766,440 ratings · 44,497 reviews · 2,810 distinct works • Similar authors
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
3.85 avg rating — 309,866 ratings — published 1891 — 3092 editions
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Far From the Madding Crowd
3.97 avg rating — 171,372 ratings — published 1874 — 2643 editions
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Jude the Obscure
3.84 avg rating — 77,840 ratings — published 1895 — 1793 editions
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
3.87 avg rating — 67,628 ratings — published 1886 — 1904 editions
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The Return of the Native
3.89 avg rating — 41,323 ratings — published 1878 — 1235 editions
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The Woodlanders
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3.90 avg rating — 18,427 ratings — published 1887 — 1438 editions
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Under the Greenwood Tree
3.63 avg rating — 15,128 ratings — published 1872 — 980 editions
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A Pair of Blue Eyes
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3.79 avg rating — 9,339 ratings — published 1873 — 940 editions
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Two on a Tower
3.71 avg rating — 4,737 ratings — published 1882 — 653 editions
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Desperate Remedies
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3.79 avg rating — 3,743 ratings — published 1871 — 825 editions
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Quotes by Thomas Hardy  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.”
― Thomas Hardy, The Personal Notebooks Of Thomas Hardy
1348 likes
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“They spoke very little of their mutual feeling; pretty phrases and warm expressions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends.”
― Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd
1318 likes
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“A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.”
― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Classic Collection
tags: strength, woman
1151 likes
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Polls

June 2025 Old School Classics Poll

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, 122 pages, 1913
 
  57 votes, 31.5%

The Devil's Pool by George Sand, 108 pages, 1846
 
  31 votes, 17.1%

 
  29 votes, 16.0%

The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells, 227 pages, 1910
 
  19 votes, 10.5%

Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy, 571 pages, 1871
 
  17 votes, 9.4%

 
  15 votes, 8.3%

 
  13 votes, 7.2%

181 total votes
More...

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