_Thomas Hardy_
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840, and has for years been famous on both
sides of the Atlantic as a writer of intense and sombre novels. His
_Tess of the D'Urbervilles_ and _Jude the Obscure_ are possibly his
best known, although his _Wessex Tales_ and _Life's Little Ironies_
are no less imposing.
It was not until he was almost sixty, in 1898 to be precise, that
Hardy abandoned prose and challenged attention as a poet. _The
Dynasts_, a drama of the Napoleonic Wars, is in three parts, nineteen
acts and one hundred and thirty scenes, a massive and most amazing
contribution to contemporary art. It is the apotheosis of Hardy the
novelist. Lascelles Abercrombie calls this work, which is partly a
historical play, partly a visionary drama, "the biggest and most
consistent exhibition of fatalism in literature." While its powerful
simplicity and tragic impressiveness overshadow his shorter poems,
many of his terse lyrics reveal the same vigor and impact of a strong
personality. His collected poems were published by The Macmillan
Company in 1919 and reveal another phase of one of the greatest living
writers of English.