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Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840. His father was a stonemason. He was brought up near Dorchester and trained as an architect. In 1868 his work took him to St Juliot's church in Cornwall where he met his wife-to-be, Emma. His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was rejected by publishers but Desperate Remedies was published in 1871 and this was rapidly followed by Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). He also wrote many other novels, poems and short stories. Tess of the D'Urbervilles was published in 1891. His final novel was Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy was awarded the Order of Merit in 1920 and the gold medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1912. His wife died in 1912 and he later married his secretary. Thomas Hardy died 11 January 1928.
The outraged reception of this work persuaded Hardy to renounce the novel in favour of poetry, but if anything its power has only grown over the years. Bleak it certainly is; the writing, however, has rarely been bettered. Jude tells the story of a struggle between flesh and spirit, body and soul, in Jude Fawley, a young Wessex villager of great promise. A stonemason who wishes to study at Christminster - Oxford thinly-disguised - his chances are dashed through poverty. He contracts a loveless marriage and becomes involved in a doomed affair with his cousin. (Kirkus UK)
