Thomas Hardy, author of Jude the Obscure

Jadzia writes:
Thomas Hardy, the author of Jude the Obscure, was the son of an independent builder.  His mother, Jermina pushed for all of her children to have a good education.  As a result, Hardy, at the age of 16, became an apprentice to a local architect.  He began writing verse while he was an apprentice in London.  After living in London for ten years, he moved back to his hometown, Dorset, where he lived the rest of his life.  While in Dorset, he wrote the book Desperate Remedies.  He also got engaged and married Emma Gifford. In addition to verse, Hardy wrote lyrics and love-songs, ballads, sonnets, dramatics, descriptive and meditative poems of all kinds, drinking songs, character sketches, and poems about public issues and events.  In 1892, Hardy's father died and his relationship with Emma Gifford became increasingly difficult.  When Jude the Obscure was published, it received very harsh criticisms, which made Hardy give up novel writing.  Twelve years after this publishing, Hardy began a relationship with Florence Dugdale.  The two met when Florence was in her mid-twenties and Hardy was sixty-five years old.  They were often alone so two years after Emma died, he married Florence.   In December 1927, Hardy fell ill and died on January 10, 1928.  He was 87.