Thomas Hardy

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Thomas Hardy by William Strang 1893

Thomas Hardy by William Strang 1893

On 11th January 1928, the poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy died at the age of 87 in Dorset, England. He was cremated and his ashes interred in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey but his heart had been removed and was buried in the Stinsford village churchyard of his native parish in Dorset.

Two of my favourite books by this author are Far From the Madding Crowd and the somewhat more depressing Jude the Obscure. The latter is the author’s last completed novel and was first produced in serialized form in a magazine in December 1894 but the following year was published as a book. The protagonist is a young stonemason, Jude Frawley, a working class man who dreams of becoming a scholar. What I like about Hardy’s writing is how he focuses on the class system of his day, encompassing marriage, religion and education (or the lack of it). He lamented a decline in rural life when so many people left agricultural work to seek better pay in large industrialized towns and this often features in his writing.

Another Victorian writer I’ve read since my teens is Charles Dickens, a contemporary of Thomas Hardy and I wondered if they ever met. After a bit of searching I’ve come to the conclusion they never did. However their paths crossed in London. Hardy was a young architect at the time and had not yet become a published author. He was working in the city and living in a London suburb as a newly wed. One day he went into a coffee shop and saw Charles Dickens, by then a well established writer. Standing next to him, Hardy was hoping to attract the famous author’s attention but Dickens was preoccupied questioning his bill and Hardy never got the chance to speak to him.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to more information about Thomas Hardy’s life and work; Thomas Hardy Biography