Henchard is punished for his misdemeanours to such an extent that, by the final chapters, he has become a deeply sorry, even sympathetic figure. However, the lessons meted out are suitably harsh, for Hardy makes it clear that past deeds never fade, and success and prosperity can be lost as quickly as gained. Hardy rarely shies away from humanity’s darker side but his characters’ cruelties are particularly prevalent here as the bartered wife and child are forced into a new life far from home. His ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey and his heart at Stinsford in Dorset.That someone would sell their family to a sailor after a night on the ale seems shocking enough, but the cover-up and Henchard’s subsequent social ascent make the original act even more scandalous.

In 1910 he had been awarded the Order of Merit and was recognized, even revered, as the major literary figure of the time. In 1914, however, he married Florence Dugdale, a close friend for several years. Paradoxically, the event triggered some of Hardy's finest love poetry. In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems and his epic drama in verse, The Dynasts.After a long and bitter estrangement, Emma Hardy died at Max Gate in 1912. Amidst the controversy caused by Jude the Obscure, he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life. He then produced most of his major novels: The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved (1892) and Jude the Obscure (1895). But in 1885, after building his house at Max Gate near Dorchester, Hardy again returned to Dorset. More novels followed and in 1878 the Hardys moved from Dorset to the London literary scene. Before their marriage in 1874 he had published four novels and was earning his living as a writer. By 1867 he had returned to Dorset to work as Hicks's assistant and began his first (unpublished) novel, The Poor Man and the Lady.On an architectural visit to St Juliot in Cornwall in 1870 he met his first wife, Emma Gifford. He now began to write poetry and published an essay. In 1862 he moved to London and found employment with another architect, Arthur Blomfield.

He was educated locally and at sixteen was articled to a Dorchester architect, John Hicks. Thomas Hardy was born in a cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on 2 June 1840.

The mayor of casterbridge author