Hardy, Thomas. (1840 - 1928).

W o r k

< Darwinism: displaces humankind from its assumption of superiority, challenges the idea of a benevolent Creator and the comforting Providence

< religion: his fictional world lacks the comfortable shapes of the old theology, the Church of England still firmly rooted in a rural society x but: incapable of interpreting the grand but discomforting idea of the universe

< history: fascinated by the slow and painful progress of human history, perceives history, geology, geography, and astronomy as macrocosmic ramifications of the human microcosm

- sceptical, agnostic, and pessimistic: his work manifest the immense process of evolution advancing regardless of human bane and human blessing

F i c t i o n :

Far From the Madding Crowd (1874):

- introduces Wessex, his favourite setting, modelled on his native Dorset

- a detailed portrayal of the endangered way of rural life

The Trumpet Major (1880):

- one of the most carefully located of his novels, set in the Napoleonic era

- a delicate study of characters choosing and making the wrong choices

The Return of the Native (1878):

- set in Wessex, in the windswept upland called Egdon Heath

- concerned with the educated protagonist's return to the heath

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886):

- follows the course of one man's character against the background of a rural agricultural community drastically changing into a modern city

Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895):

- his fictional masterpieces and most complex novels, concerned with characters wrenched from their roots and communities

- interfuses literary and biblical citation, scientific reference, philosophical speculation, superstitious hints, and suggestions of genetic conditioning

- presents strong and determined female characters

P o e t r y :

- prevails a melancholy, reflexive, and sometimes ironic mood

Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914):

- mostly elegiac poems devoted to the memory of his first wife

“Under the Waterfall”:

- the speaker recalls the memory of lovers picnicking beside a waterfall and losing a wineglass in the water: the glass remained intact under the waterfall x but: the pledges once made in it have since been shattered

“The Darkling Thrush”:

- set in an impersonal landscape where ‘every spirit upon earth’ seems to share a lack of fervour with the speaker x except the thrush singing lustily of ‘Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware’