Abstract
Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, close to Dorchester, a county town in the south-west of England, on 2 June 1840. Few great writers can have had as humble a birth-place as the small, secluded cottage hidden in the trees at the end of a country lane, which is now an object of pilgrimage for many thousands of his admirers each year. He lived in that cottage for the first twenty-two years of his life, growing up in the midst of a rustic environment which was to play a large part in his great novels. A boy of sensitive awareness to the life going on around him, and blest with a remarkable retentive memory, he was in those years to acquire the experience, the knowledge, the impressions which served him so well as a writer.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Copyright information
© 1986 James Gibson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gibson, J. (1986). Thomas Hardy: life and background. In: Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Macmillan Master Guides. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07423-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07423-5_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-37287-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-07423-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)