Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet active from the 19th to the early 20th century, best known for works such as Jude the Obscure and Far From the Maddening Crowd. Now, I know when we hear words like England and 19th century, we all start thinking the same thing – more super tight collars of the Victorian Era. Hardy, however, was a Victorian realist much like that of George Eliot, who we’ve covered previously on the podcast, and he was pretty damn critical of the majority of Victorian society, particularly when it came to those living in the more rural areas in the country of Britain. It was these areas that truly inspired Hardy – his novels center on somewhat tragic characters struggling with social circumstances and passions, and most of whom live in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, meant to mirror his native land of South West England. His initial fame sparked from his highly successful novels, though Hardy personally considered himself more of a poet in spite of the fact that his first collection of poetry was not published until well after his novel writing ceased. These collections, influenced heavily by the romanticism of William Wordsworth, would become widely regarded and loved by other writers such as Ezra Pound, Phillip Larkin, and W.H. Auden. But who was this prolific writer underneath the surface? He was a man twice married with no children and an affinity for young ladies. At one point in his life, Hardy was a successful architect, though he left that industry to pursue his career in the literary world. And another odd tidbit? He was a huge fan of Charles Darwin and his theories on evolution, so much so that they changed the entirety of his religious beliefs after being raised Anglican. So who was Thomas Hardy? Let’s find out on episode 25 this week on Legacy: the Artists Behind the Legends.