Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy's poetry, though prolific, was not as well received during his lifetime. It was rediscovered in the 1950s, when Hardy's poetry had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Philip Larkin.

Most of his fictional works – initially published as serials in magazines – were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. They explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy's Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England.

Thomas Hardy (winemaker)

Thomas Hardy (14 January 1830 – 10 January 1912) was a winemaker in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. He has been called the "Father of the South Australian Wine Industry".

History

Thomas Hardy was born in Gittisham in Devon. He and Joanna Holbrook, whom he later married, arrived in South Australia on the British Empire on 14 August 1850. While on the voyage he acted as schoolmaster to the boys on board, while one Mrs. J. Gillard taught the girls. He soon found work with John Reynell at Reynella Farm, and learned much of winemaking from the German fellow-workers. After two years he left for the goldfields of Victoria, where he was quite successful working with a butcher and droving cattle to the diggings from Yankalilla. He then started work on a station near Normanville. In 1853 he purchased a property of 46 acres (18.6 ha) on the River Torrens which he called "Bankside", now Underdale, near the present Hardys Road.

In 1854 he planted 2 acres (0.8 ha) of fruit trees, mainly oranges, and 0.75 acres (0.3 ha) of Shiraz vines which he enlarged in 1856, then added an acre of Muscatel table grapes in 1861. He made his first wine in 1857 and exported two hogsheads to England in 1859, one of the first exports of wine from South Australia. By 1863 his vineyards covered 35 acres (14 ha) of Grenache, Mataro, Muscat, Roussillon, Shiraz and Zante grapes. He also purchased grapes from other vignerons in the Adelaide area. By 1879 his vintage had reached 27,000 gallons (100,000 litres).

Thomas Hardy (political reformer)

Thomas Hardy (3 March 1752, Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland – 11 October 1832, Queens Row, Pimlico, London) was an early Radical, and the founder and first Secretary of the London Corresponding Society.

Early life

Hardy was born on 3 March 1752, the son of a merchant seaman. His father died in 1760 at sea while Thomas was still a boy. He was sent to school by his maternal grandfather and later apprenticed to a shoemaker in Stirlingshire. He later worked in the Carron Iron Works. As a young man, he came to London just before the American Revolutionary War. In 1781 he married the youngest daughter of a carpenter and builder named Priest from Chesham, Buckinghamshire and had six children, all of whom died in infancy. His wife, pregnant with her sixth child died in childbirth on 27 August 1794, her child being stillborn, perhaps as the result of injuries sustained when a loyalist mob attacked the Hardy home some weeks earlier. In 1791 Hardy opened his own boot and shoe shop at 9 Piccadilly, London.

Thomas Hardy's Cottage

Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, is a small cob and thatch building that is the birthplace of the English author Thomas Hardy. He was born there in 1840 and lived in the cottage until he was aged 34—during which time he wrote the novels Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)—when he left home to be married to Emma Gifford.

The cottage was built by Hardy's great-grandfather in 1800. It is now a National Trust property, and a popular tourist attraction. The property has a typical cottage garden, and the interior displays furniture which, although not from the Hardy family, is original to the period. The property is situated on the northern boundary of Thorncombe Wood. It is only three miles from Max Gate, the house that he designed and lived in with Emma from 1885 until his death in 1928.

In 2012 the go ahead was given to a project to build a new visitor centre near the cottage. The project also included new trails in Thorncombe Wood. The project, which secured £525,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was a joint partnership between Dorset County Council and the National Trust. The visitor centre opened in September 2014.

Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet

Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, 1st Baronet GCB (5 April 1769 – 20 September 1839) was a Royal Navy officer. He took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797, the Battle of the Nile in August 1798 and the Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He served as flag captain to Admiral Lord Nelson, and commanded HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars. Nelson was shot as he paced the decks with Hardy, and as he lay dying, Nelson's famous remark of "Kiss me, Hardy" was directed at him. Hardy went on to become First Naval Lord in November 1830 and in that capacity refused to become a Member of Parliament and encouraged the introduction of steam warships.

Early life

Born the second son of Joseph Hardy and Nanny Hardy (née Masterman) at Kingston Russell House in Long Bredy (or according to some sources in Winterborne St Martin), Hardy joined the navy with his entry aboard the brig HMS Helena on 30 November 1781 as a captain's servant, but left her in April 1782 to attend Crewkerne Grammar School. During his time at school his name was carried on the books of the sixth-rate HMS Seaford and the third-rate HMS Carnatic.

Thomas Hardy (minister)

Thomas Hardy, (22 April 1748 – 21 November 1798) was a Scottish Minister, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University.

He was better known for his political and social activities than his scholarship, though he was a popular and eloquent preacher. His academic lectures, it is said, were often met with applause. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the British Government during the troubled times of the French Revolution, as was natural to one whose career had benefited from the patronage of Henry Dundas. He published nothing on Church History, his academic subject, but some of his sermons survive as do pamphlets on Moderation in Religion (meaning support for the established order), the evils of the slave trade, the need for increase stipends for Ministers as well as polemics against the writings of the radical Thomas Paine

Career

Thomas Hardy (disambiguation)

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was an English novelist, short-story writer and poet.

Thomas Hardy or Tom Hardy may also refer to:

Thomas Hardy

Tom Hardy