Knowra Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was an English novelist and poet whose fiction often portrays rural life, social constraint, and tragic chance. His major works include Far from the Madding Crowd , Tess of the d’Urbervilles , and Jude the Obscure .
Tess of the d’Urbervilles : A novel by Thomas Hardy about a young woman whose life is shaped by sexual violence, social judgment, and misfortune. Its controversial heroine exemplifies Hardy’s critique of Victorian sexual morality.
Wessex : The fictional region in southwestern England where many of Hardy’s novels and stories are set. Hardy transformed the geography of his native southwest into a recurring literary landscape.
Dorchester : A town in Dorset, England, known as Casterbridge in Thomas Hardy’s fiction. Hardy grew up near Dorchester and later made its fictional counterpart a central Wessex setting.
Emma Gifford : Thomas Hardy’s first wife, whom he married in 1874. Hardy’s strained marriage to Emma later informed poems written after her death.
Victorian marriage law : The laws governing marriage, divorce, and spouses’ legal rights in Britain during the Victorian era. Hardy’s fiction exposed the legal and social constraints facing women and unhappy spouses.
Far from the Madding Crowd : A novel by Thomas Hardy about Bathsheba Everdene and the people who love or work alongside her in rural Dorset. Its pastoral setting and independent heroine reveal an earlier, less relentlessly tragic Hardy.
Dorset : A county in southwest England where Thomas Hardy was born and grew up. Its villages, landscapes, and social life supplied material for Hardy’s Wessex.
Architecture : The art and practice of designing and constructing buildings. Hardy trained and worked as an architect before becoming a full-time writer.
Florence Dugdale : An English writer who married Thomas Hardy in 1914 and later wrote his biography. Dugdale became Hardy’s second wife and helped shape accounts of his final years.
Literary censorship : The restriction or suppression of literary works by governments, institutions, or social pressure. Controversy over Hardy’s treatment of sexuality affected the publication and reception of his novels.
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