2. Quick Facts
Born on June 2, 1840 in cottage built by
grandfather in Higher Bockhampton, miles east
from Dorchester in Dorset, England
Educated by his mother until the age of 8 and only
had formal education until age 16
3. Personal Details
Ended formal education to
apprentice a local architect and
eventually became one
Was an English novelist and poet
but regarded himself more as a
poet
Married Emma Gifford in 1874 (d.
1912)
His poems from 1912-1913
reflected her death
Married his secretary Florence
Dugdale in 1914 (at age 35 and
Thomas age 74)
5. Received the Order of Merit (which
gives him the post-nominal letters
OM)
Died on January 11, 1928 due to
inflammation of his lungs
His funeral was on January 16,1928
and was largely controversial
His wish was to be buried next to
Emma but his executor wanted him
to be buried at Poet’s Corner
His heart was buried with Emma
and his remains buried at Poet’s
Corner in Westminster
Abbey, London, England, next to
Charles Dickens (who wrote A
Christmas Carol)
6. The heart of Thomas buried next to
Emma at Stinsford a mile away from
the cottage he was born
8. Influenced by Romanticism
Free expression of artist
Fatalist
All subjects are subject to fate
Naturalism
1880s to 1940s
Replicate everyday believable reality
Victorian Literature
Preceded Romantic Period
Idealize portraits of difficult lives in which their hard work and
perseverance will win; virtue-rewarded; wrongdoers-punished
Became complex in later decades
Victorian Realist
Rejected God
Challenged the beliefs of Victorian society
Considered most important novelist in the later decades of Victorian Era
due to his Victorian Realist view in literature
Many of his work reflected his hardship in Dorchester
10. Poetry
Moments of Vision (1917)
Satires of Circumstance (1914)
The Dynasts (1908)
Time’s Laughingstocks (1909)
Wessex Poems (1898)
Winter Words in Various Moods and Meters
(1928)
11. Novels
A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
Desperate Remedies (1871)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1897)
The Return of the Native (1879)
The Trumpet Major (1879)
The Well Beloved (1897)
Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)
