Thomas Hardy
AUTHOR

Thomas Hardy

Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Thomas Hardy was born in a cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on 2 June 1840. He was educated locally and at sixteen was articled to a Dorchester architect, John Hicks. In 1862 he moved to London and found employment with another architect, Arthur Blomfield. He now began to write poetry and published an essay. By 1867 he had returned to Dorset to work as Hicks's assistant and began his first (unpublished) novel, The Poor Man and the Lady. On an architectural visit to St Juliot in Cornwall in 1870 he met his first wife, Emma Gifford. Before their marriage in 1874 he had published four novels and was earning his living as a writer. More novels followed and in 1878 the Hardys moved from Dorset to the London literary scene. But in 1885, after building his house at Max Gate near Dorchester, Hardy again returned to Dorset. He then produced most of his major novels: The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved (1892) and Jude the Obscure (1895). Amidst the controversy caused by Jude the Obscure, he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life. In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems and his epic drama in verse, The Dynasts. After a long and bitter estrangement, Emma Hardy died at Max Gate in 1912. Paradoxically, the event triggered some of Hardy's finest love poetry. In 1914, however, he married Florence Dugdale, a close friend for several years. In 1910 he had been awarded the Order of Merit and was recognized, even revered, as the major literary figure of the time. He died on 11 January 1928. His ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey and his heart at Stinsford in Dorset. Photo by Bain News Service, publisher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Read more Read less
You're getting a free audiobook


You're getting a free audiobook.

$14.95 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Try for $0.00

Far from the Madding Crowd

Most popular
View Details
The Mayor of Casterbridge

Featured Listen

The Mayor of Casterbridge, published in 1886, is often praised for its complex characters and unflinching examination of moral dilemmas. Hardy's vivid descriptions of rural life in 19th-century England and his deep understanding of the human capacity for both greatness and self-destruction contribute to the story's enduring appeal.

 Read more

Featured Article: 65+ Quotes About Love from Much-Loved Authors


While saying "I love you" speaks volumes, there are times when you yearn to express your feelings for a loved one—whether a cherished friend, serious crush, or your soul mate—in a way that's more creative, more eloquent, more memorable...in a word: quotable. For those times, there's no better source to turn to than great authors. We've collected some of most tender, most romantic, and most passionate quotes from the world's most-loved authors.

Featured Article 65+ Quotes About Love from Much Loved Authors

Best Sellers

Product List
  • Far from the Madding Crowd Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $21.81 Regular price:

  • The Return of the Native Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $24.51 Regular price:

  • The Woodlanders Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $20.34 Regular price:

  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $25.52 Regular price:

  • The Return of the Native Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $26.65 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • The Mayor of Casterbridge Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $25.52 Regular price:

  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $18.88 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Desperate Remedies Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $20.18 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Wessex Tales Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $23.88 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Far From the Madding Crowd Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $33.38 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Short Stories About Suicide Audiobook By Guy de Maupassant, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, V

    $20.00 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $26.65 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • The Ultimate Classics Collection – Volume Two: 15+ Novels, Stories, and Poems from Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Bront&e

    $38.00 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Jude The Obscure Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $26.05 Regular price:

  • The British Classics Collection - Volume One: 20+ Stories from Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy,

    $38.00 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Jude the Obscure Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $26.65 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • The Return of the Native Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $18.91 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Far from the Madding Crowd Audiobook By Thomas Hardy, Rosemarie Morgan - introduction cover art

    $23.24 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Short Stories: The Vintage Collection Audiobook By Saki, Thomas Hardy, Kate Chopin, James Thurber, P. G. Wodehouse, F. Scott

    $16.35 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles (AmazonClassics Edition) Audiobook By Thomas Hardy cover art

    $25.00 or free with 30-day trial

    Try for $0.00
Looking for more? Browse other popular authors.

Are you an author?

Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.
Visit Amazon Author Central