Thomas Hardy

British writer 1840-1928. Wrote both poetry and prose, often centred in his native Wessex.

All but his first two novels were serialised in magazines prior to book publication. Indeed, (near) simultaneous serialisation occurred in separate markets - e.g. London and New York - for each work from "A Pair of Blue Eye"' to "Tess of the d'Urberville". The complete list, with date of book publication and principal (UK) serialisation is as follows:

• 1871 Desperate Remedies
• 1872 Under the Greenwood Tree
• 1873 A Pair of Blue Eyes Serialised in Tinsley's Magazine September 1872 - July 1873
• 1874 Far from the Madding Crowd Serialised in The Cornhill January - December 1874
• 1876 The Hand of Ethelberta Serialised in The Cornhill July 1875 - May 1876
• 1878 The Return of the Native Serialised in Belgravia January to December 1878
• 1880 The Trumpet-Major Serialised in Good Words January - December 1880
• 1881 A Laodicean Serialised in Harper's New Monthly Magazine December 1880 - December 1881
• 1882 Two on a Tower Serialised in Atlantic Monthly May - December 1882
• 1886 The Mayor of Casterbridge Serialised in The Graphic 2 January - 15 May 1886
• 1887 The Woodlanders Serialised in Macmillan's Magazine May 1886 - April 1887
• 1891 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Serialised in The Graqphic 4 July - 26 December 1891
• 1896 Jude the Obscure Serialised in Harper's New Monthly Magazine December 1894 - November 1895
• 1897 The Well-Beloved Serialised (as The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved in Illustrated London News 1 October - 17 December 1892

The "moral outrage" surrounding "Jude the Obscure" prompted Hardy to stop writing novels.

Nevertheless, he did not withdraw altogether, continuing to write in other forms, he produced a number of volumes of poetry, including "drama in verse", short stories and one play.

• 1888 Wessex Tales short stories
• 1891 A Group of Noble Dames short stories
• 1893 The Three Wayfarers a play
• 1894 Life's Little Ironies short stories
• 1898 Wessex Poems] poetry
• 1902 Poems of the Past and Present poetry
• 1903,1906 and 1908 The Dynasts verse drama in three parts
• 1909 Time's Laughingstocks poetry
• 1913 A Changed Man and Other Tales short stories
• 1914 Satires of Circumstance poetry
• 1917 Moments of Vision poetry
• 1922 Late Lyrics and Earlier poetry
• 1923 The Famouse Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall verse drama
• 1925 Human Shows poetry
• 1928 Winter Words poetry

His initial career was as an architect, which took him to London. He returned to Dorset after five years, much of this part of his architectural work involving restoration of churches.

While I resist writing a blurb about a life and effort that spanned almost one hundred years, I will mention a few trends. Thomas Hardy was an admirer of Darwin, and held the belief that the human condition was much more humble than had been considered by his contemporaries. He believed that if God did think of humankind, he saw it as a failure. His emphasis on nature’s laws earned him little respect from critics. His earthy heroine Jude the Obscure was called "Jude the Obscene" by critics, who abhorred the unpopular fatalistic tone of the novel.

Perhaps the most telling story about his life is his death. After Thomas Hardy died, his heart was cut out and sent to his wife. As if horror needed to be added to the situation, when she left it out, his dog found it and ate it.

Hardy was also a lexicographer, in a manner appropriate to this site. When an editor complained of Hardy's use of the non-word "smalled" in one of his manuscripts, he invited the editor to look it up in the dictionary -- where the editor found "the river smalled to its source, Thomas Hardy"

The Woodlanders, Penguin Books 1983, page 406

"Moreover, a subtlist¹⁹⁴ in emotions, he cultivated as under glasses strange and mournful pleasures that he would not willingly let die just at present."

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194 'One who is addicted to subtleties' (O.E.D). The only example of its use given by the O.E.D is that of Hardy here.