Thomas Hardy, short note for PGT English

 

1. Thomas Hardy was a major Victorian novelist and poet.
2. He was born on 2 June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton.
3. Hardy is known for his regional setting called Wessex.
4. Wessex represents the rural counties of south-west England.
5. Hardy first trained as an architect.
6. Later he turned to literature as a career.
7. His novels reflect rural life and social change.
8. Fate and chance play an important role in his works.
9. Hardy is regarded as a naturalistic writer.
10. His characters often struggle against destiny.
11. His first important novel was Far from the Madding Crowd.
12. This novel presents pastoral life and strong female character Bathsheba.
13. The Return of the Native shows the power of Egdon Heath.
14. Egdon Heath acts like a living character.
15. The Mayor of Casterbridge deals with guilt and fate.
16. Michael Henchard is a tragic hero.
17. The Woodlanders depicts woodland life.
18. Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a tragic story of a pure woman.
19. The subtitle is “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented.”
20. Tess is a victim of social injustice.
21. Jude the Obscure criticizes marriage and religion.
22. This novel shocked Victorian readers.
23. After criticism, Hardy gave up writing novels.
24. He turned completely to poetry afterwards.
25. Hardy wrote poems throughout his life.
26. His poetry is marked by pessimism and irony.
27. Hardy’s poems include The Dynasts.
28. The Dynasts is an epic drama about the Napoleonic wars.
29. Nature in Hardy’s works is indifferent to humans.
30. He shows conflict between old traditions and modernity.
31. Hardy questioned Victorian moral values.
32. He often portrayed unhappy marriages.
33. Coincidence is a frequent device in his plots.
34. Hardy used simple and realistic language.
35. Women characters in Hardy are strong yet tragic.
36. Rustic characters add humor to his novels.
37. Hardy’s works show deep sympathy for the poor.
38. He believed in the blind force of fate.
39. His outlook is often called “melioristic pessimism.”
40. Hardy married Emma Gifford first.
41. After her death, he wrote many love poems in her memory.
42. Later he married Florence Dugdale.
43. Hardy received the Order of Merit in 1910.
44. He died on 11 January 1928.
45. Hardy’s ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey.
46. His heart was buried in Stinsford.
47. Hardy is a bridge between Victorian and modern literature.
48. His tragic vision influenced modern novelists.
49. Hardy’s treatment of fate is important for exams.
50. He married his secretary Florence Emily Dugdale, 40 years junior and lived happily.
51.  Hardy inherited music from his master mason father and love for reading from his mother.
52.  In 1860, he became a student of modern languages at King’s College. At the same time, he also studied the modern Gothic architecture under Sir Arthur Bloomfield.
53. He got the medal of the Institute of British Architects for writing an essay on Coloured Brick and Terra Cotta Architecture.
54.  His unsigned article How I Built Myself a House was published in 1865.
55.  George Meredith examined the manuscript of his first novel The Poor Man and the Lady. He gave his criticism and asked him not to get it published. He advised him to write with more plot.
56.  In 1874, he fell in love with Emma Lavinia Gifford and this love culminated in unhappy marriage. In 1914, after her death, The Order of Merit was conferred upon him in 1910.

 

WORKS OF HARDY

 

Desperate Remedies 1871

Under the Greenwood Tree 1872

A Pair of Blue Eyes 1873

Far From the Madding Crowd 1874

The Hand of Ethelberta 1876

The Return of the Native 1878

The Trumpet Major 1880

A Laodicean 1881

Two on a Tower 1882

 

The Mayor of Casterbridge 1886

The Woodlanders 1887

Tess of the D’Urbervilles 1891

The Well Beloved 1892

Jude the Obscure 1895

 

SHORT STORIES

 

Wessex Tales (1888)

A Group of Noble Dames (1891)

Life’s Little Ironies (1894)

 

 

POETRY

 

Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)

Poems of Past and Present (1901)

Time’s Laughing Stance (1909)

Moments of Vision (1917)

Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Voices (1922)

Human Shows, Far Phantasies (1925)

Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres published posthumously in 1928

 

The Dynasts (1903–08) Three volume epic closet drama representing the course of Napoleonic Wars from 1805 to 1815

 

The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall 1923 (drama)