ABSTRACT
Thomas Hardy holds a unique position in English letters, having been accorded serious recognition both for his poetry and prose. His literary career is unusual in that he began as a poet in 1865 at the age of 25, switched to novels and short stories, and in his mid-fifties after the publication of Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, two of his most-acclaimed works, returned to writing poetry exclusively until his death in 1928. Hardy was a mediocre student and, according to one source, “rather indolent, not easily led, and always seemed to be in search of something beyond the curriculum to which he was subjected.” A review of Hardy’s life and writings indicates that a crucial determinant of his becoming a writer was unconscious guilt arising from the complications of his birth, which were nearly fatal for his mother, a fact she did not let him forget.
