Dorset Childhood and London Apprenticeship
Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset during the year of 1840; he was the son of a highly skilled stonemason who subsequently paid for him to have a good if not spectacular education. Thomas Hardy's father made him become an apprentice architect when he turned eighteen during the year 1858, and at that stage there was little sign that he would become a prolific writer. After serving the full term of his apprenticeship Thomas Hardy moved from his native Dorset to the city of London during 1862 to work as an architect.
Although Thomas Hardy was a reasonably competent architect it was not a profession that gave him any kind of job satisfaction. Despite a lack of job satisfaction Thomas Hardy did not decide to give up been an architect until after his first marriage to Emma Gifford in 1874.
A Promising New Career
It was a bold move in the year 1874 when Thomas Hardy stopped been an architect in order to become a full-time writer of novels, poetry, as well as short stories, certainly a gamble with no other source of income coming in. If he had been a failure he would almost certainly have had to return to doing a job he hated.
However within a relatively short period Thomas Hardy had managed to gain a strong following of avid readers of his works particularly within the London area of Britain.
Despite a small minority of newspaper and journal reviewers not been very enthusiastic about the pessimistic as well as the allegedly immoral nature of his written work Thomas Hardy was a consistently successful author from the 1870s right through to his death in 1928.
A Prolific Career
Thomas Hardy critics and fans alike noticed always set out to fill his novels, poetry, and short stories with his own sense of humour as well as a high degree of realism. Hardy also filled his written work with a prevalent and strong sense of irony.
Among Thomas Hardy's most famous not to mention successful novels included Tess of the D’ubervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, and also Jude the Obscure. Thomas Hardy made Jude the Obscure semi-autobiographical in its nature as Jude turns away from the career that his father had wanted him to perform.
Other notable novels include A Pair of Blue Eyes, Desperate Remedies, Two on a Tower, and The Return of the Native. Thomas Hardy had a long as well as a successful career as a writer stretching over an impressive six decades, and only ended his death.
Thomas Hardy did not write any more novels after 1912, concentrating upon producing a great volume of poetry instead. The poetry he wrote between 1912 and 1913 was amongst his most poignant work as he was grieving after the death of his first wife. He was not a widower for long, as he married his second wife Florence Dugdale during 1914. He continued to produce poetry right up until his death, with the final volume been published in 1930.
Bibliography
Crystal D (1998) Chambers’ Biographical Encyclopedia, 2nd edition
Drabble M & Stringer J, (2007) Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature
