HARDY, THOMAS. - English novelist and poet, b. at Upper Bockhampton on 2 June 1850 and d. at Dorchester on 11 Jan. 1928. The practice of architecture, to which he devoted himself in his youth, left its mark on his work, both by suggesting themes, situations and images to him and, above all, insofar as it assisted him in the classical construction of his plots and of his periods. The setting of the events of his novels is the counties of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, particularly Dorset.

H.'s thought is imbued with positivism: an unconscious will, immanent in the world, manifests itself tragically in the fabric of nature and of obscure human life.

He wrote: novels (Desperate remedies, 1871; The mayor of Casterbridge, 1884-85; Tess of the d'Urbervilles, 1891; Jude the Obscure, 1895; A changed man, 1913); poetry (Collected poems, 1919; the earliest lyrics date back to 1865); the drama The dynasts, an epic drama of the war with Napoleon... (1931).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: L. Johnson, The art of T. H., London 1894; F. Olivero, An introduction to T. H., Turin 1930; F. E. Hardy, The life of T. H., 2 vols., London 1933; A. Castelli, T. H. poeta, Milan 1937.

Alberto Castelli

@incollection{ec6_hardy_thomas, author = {Castelli, Alberto}, title = {Hardy, thomas}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1363}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/hardy-thomas} }

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Hardy, Thomas

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