Coghill Jeff - CliffsNotes on Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Library of Congress Control Number: 00-108203

ISBN: 0-7645-8658-0

eISBN 978-0-544-18415-2
v1.0713

About the Author

Currently a librarian and instructor of English at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, Jeff Coghill received his B.A. in English from Methodist College, his MA in English from Western Carolina University, and his MLIS from the University of Alabama. He lives in Lake Charles with his wife, Michele, and his teenage daughter, Caroline.

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Thomas Hardy was born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, England on June 2, 1840, the eldest son of Thomas Hardy and Jemima (Hand) Hardy. His father was a stonemason and builder; his mother passed on her love of reading and books to her son. Hardy had somewhat of an isolated life on the open fields of the region. He grew up living and examining rural life, which figures prominently in many of his novels. His primary school education lasted until he was sixteen, at which time he was sent to an apprenticeship with John Hicks, a local architect.

By 1862, when he was 22, Hardy left for London to work as a draftsman in the office of Arthur Blomfield. While in London, Hardy was influenced by the works of Charles Swinburne, Robert Browning, and Charles Darwin (the author of Origin of Species, 1856). Poor health forced Hardy to return to his native region in 1867, where he worked for Hicks again and for another architect, G.R. Crickmay.

Hardys education was interrupted by his work as an architect. He had wanted to attend the university and become an Anglican minister, but lack of funds and his declining interest in religion swayed Hardy away from that avocation and more toward a self-study of poetry and writing. Hardy tried his hand at writing when he was 17 and wrote for years while he was a practicing architect. His first novel manuscript, The Poor Man and the Lady (186768), was rejected by several publishers, but one editor, George Meredith encouraged him, and so Hardy set out to refine his style. A second story, Desperate Remedies (1871), was accepted and published. His next novel, Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), demonstrates a more polished Hardy now coming into his own style.

By 1870, Hardy was sent by his employer to begin a restoration project of the St. Juliot Church in Cornwall. Here he met his first wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford, whom Hardy married in 1874. Emma encouraged Hardy to write, and by 1872, Hardy left architecture to devote his time to his literary career.

When Hardy left his career as architect, he did so with a contract for 11 monthly installments of a tale, A Pair of Blue Eyes, in the Cornhill Magazine. His reputation as one of Englands newer novelists sustained the Hardy family from that time on. The next novel,