2. Biography

• Born 1842 when Queen Victoria had been on the throne for 3 years. Saw new laws on divorce, voting rights for women, and the questioning of religion
• Rose from the lower class into the most renowned poet of his time.
• Engages with the new ideas of his age - developments in science, new philosophies that challenged religion, growth of radical politics surrounding working class equality and democracy, the struggle for a new status for women, and the effects of WW1
• As a child he only left Dorset once to visit Hertfordshire.
• Walked through Dorchester countryside, observing the change, alteration, decay, and growth. His childhood didn't restrict him, rather opened his mind to wider issues of humanity's layers and unceasing change.
• Befriended the intelligent but unstable Horace Moule, who inspired him to learn Latin and Greek.
• Moule recommended the book The Wonders of Geology in which H learnt about the geological development of Dorset
• Involved in historical buildings due to his work on gothic churches. Found that buildings were encoded history, records of the lives of those who inhabited them.
• Never willing to discuss his social origins out of respect for his family. His mother, a keen reader, saw education as the key to social mobility. He gave up his hopes of reading for a degree and of entering the church.
• Choice to drop out of university was indirectly as a result of his love for Emma Gifford. By their marriage in September 1872, he had given up architecture - with Emma's strong approval
• Moved to London briefly in 1878 but was confined to bed by 1880 due to serious illness. Left for Dorset in 1881.
• His move back to Dorset revitalised his literary career but many books at this time were controversial due to their views on sexuality and religion. Not popular in Dorset.
• Marriage to Emma has broken down by the late 1880s due to her insistence on her own social superiority.
• Critics have claimed Emma looked down on Hardy and felt she was superior in all aspects
• Hardy has a strong-minded mother and kept close with his sibling Mary until her death in 1915
• Whilst in London he had serious relationships with upper-class married women with beauty, intelligence, social poise, and literary ambitions. He never kept these friendships a secret. Wanted a physical relationship with Florence Henniker, but she did not.
• Emma grew resentful and miserable at Hardy's career and the loss of her own.
• Hardy did not see women as merely sexual objects, despite his obsessively romantic attitude to them. Saw them as equals and encouraged men to challenge conventional attitudes towards morality and religion.
• Hardy has a gradual loss of faith in a Christian God in the last phase of his life. As a child he dreamt of being a clergyman, but as an adult Darwin's Origin of Species and Geology shook his belief in the accuracy of the biblical account of creation.