Thomas Hardy

Discover the sweeping, tragic novels of Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era and a towering figure in English literature. Hardy's novels are set in the fictional county of Wessex — a richly imagined version of rural southwest England — and explore the lives of ordinary men and women caught between the old world and the new, between passion and duty, between fate and free will. His essential works include Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure. Profoundly moving, beautifully written, and as relevant today as ever.