Thomas Hardy
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Thomas Hardy

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Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy's poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy's poetry had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Philip Larkin.

Most of his fictional works - initially published as serials in magazines - were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. They explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Bain News Service, publisher [Public domain, Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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    • Tess of the d'Urbervilles

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Davina Porter
    • Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 1,625
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 1,513
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 1,513

    Tess Durbeyfield, a peasant girl and cast-off descendant of English aristocracy, has become one of the most famous female protagonists in 19th-century British literature....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Davina Porter Does It Again!

    • By misaki on 06-15-15

    Regular price: $29.95

    Free with 30-day Trial

    • The Return of the Native

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Alan Rickman
    • Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 906
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 828
    • Story
      4 out of 5 stars 805

    Set on Egdon Heath, a fictional barren moor in Wessex, Eustacia Vye longs for the excitement of city life but is cut off from the world in her grandfather's lonely cottage....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Always Hardy

    • By Wallen on 04-20-11

    Regular price: $24.51

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    • Far From the Madding Crowd

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Jamie Parker
    • Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 1,150
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 1,049
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 1,047

    When confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Sergeant Troy, Bathsheba Everdene shows a reckless capriciousness that threatens the stability of the whole community....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Country tales and voices.

    • By Judyth on 01-07-15

    Regular price: $29.95

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    • Jude The Obscure

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
    • Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4 out of 5 stars 111
    • Performance
      4 out of 5 stars 78
    • Story
      3.5 out of 5 stars 79

    This is the story of a young country workman obsessed by his ambition to become an Oxford student, interwoven with his fraught relationships with two women....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Staggering

    • By Tad Davis on 02-16-10

    Regular price: $21.68

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    • Under the Greenwood Tree

    • The Mellstock Choir - A Rural Painting of the Dutch School
    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Jamie Parker
    • Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4 out of 5 stars 22
    • Performance
      5 out of 5 stars 20
    • Story
      3.5 out of 5 stars 20

    Under the Greenwood Tree is an affectionate and youthful portrait of a world Hardy knew well - village life in 'Wessex' - in which a romantic tale is set against changing circumstances....

    • 3 out of 5 stars

    • I'm a Hardy fan but...

    • By Jordan Rivers on 07-24-15

    Regular price: $24.49

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    • The Woodlanders

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Samuel West
    • Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 162
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 115
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 114

    The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-do-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of a dashing and dissolute doctor....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Thomas Hardy lesser known work

    • By Molly Aultz on 06-12-08

    Regular price: $20.34

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    • The Mayor of Casterbridge

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Tony Britton
    • Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 153
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 136
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 134

    This audiobook is about the rise and fall of Michael Henchard. While out-of-work he gets drunk at a fair and impulsively sells his wife and baby for five guineas to a sailor....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Tangled Webs

    • By Joseph R on 12-22-09

    Regular price: $21.31

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    • Desperate Remedies

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Melody Grove
    • Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 35
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 31
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 32

    Desperate Remedies contains sensational ingredients of blackmail, murder, and romance, but with its insight into psychology and sexuality it bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Hsrdy at his Best

    • By Coug Dude on 09-06-18

    Regular price: $23.71

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    • The Return of the Native

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Tadhg Hynes
    • Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4.5 out of 5 stars 7
    • Performance
      4.5 out of 5 stars 7
    • Story
      4.5 out of 5 stars 7

    The Return of the Native (1878) is one of Hardy's most popular novels....

    • 5 out of 5 stars

    • Extremely good value for money!

    • By Stephen on 04-14-15

    Regular price: $14.00

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    • A Laodicean

    • By: Thomas Hardy
    • Narrated by: Tadhg Hynes
    • Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
    • Unabridged
    • Overall
      4 out of 5 stars 7
    • Performance
      4 out of 5 stars 7
    • Story
      4 out of 5 stars 7

    Our Laodicean Paula Power, the daughter of a wealthy Victorian railway engineer, is the sole inheritor of the ancient De Stancy Castle.

    Regular price: $14.00

    Free with 30-day Trial

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