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![THOMAS HARDY
Hardy's resurrection of the name "Wessex" is largely
responsible for the popular modern use of the term to
describe the south-west region of England (with the exception
of Cornwall and arguably Devon); today, a panoply of
organisations take their name from Hardy to describe their
relationship to the area.[5] Hardy's conception of Wessex as a
separate, cohesive geographical and political identity has
proved powerful, despite the fact it was originally created
purely as an artistic conceit, and has spawned a lucrative
tourist trade, and even a devolutionist Wessex Regionalist
Party.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/thomashardy-180220155226/75/Thomas-hardy-18-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byIndranil Sarkar M.A
Thomas hardy
Thomas Hardy is celebrated as a significant poet and novelist, known for his in-depth portrayal of Victorian rural England through his nine novels and fifty-three short stories. Despite being labeled a 'pessimist' for much of his life, postmodern critics have reinterpreted his work as indicative of 'meliorism,' suggesting a view that life can improve through concerted efforts. His fictional setting, 'Wessex,' serves as a backdrop for exploring complex themes, drawing on both real and imagined elements of English geography and society.
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Thomas hardy
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- 4. • Thomas Hardyis recognized as a great poet; a great novelist; a story-teller of super excellence. Like Dickens he was a social chronicler of his times. • He studied architecture in King’s College, Cambridge and became the Topper in M.Tech. • Hardy wrote poems all through his life but got recognition as a poet only in the fag end of his life because the themes of most of his poems were far ahead of his time. He wrote more than one thousand poems. More than 1000 poems in eight volumes were published during his life time while many more got published posthumously.
- 5. THOMASHARDY,OM Hardy’s success camewith his novels which he started writing much to his dislike and at the insistence of his iconic wife Emma Hogarth just for earning his livelihood. He created the dreamland ‘Wessex’. He portrayed the rural England and its gossip-monger, poverty stricken and innocent due to ignorance in its best. • He wrote a total of 9(nine) novels. • Hardy was an unorthodox short-story teller. He wrote a total of 53 short stories. His concept varied from the traditional definition of a short story. He told his tales like medieval story tellers. He compared a story teller with ‘An Ancient Mariner.
- 6. THOMASHARDY,OM • He wrotealtogether 53 stories presenting the pen-picture of Victorian rural England with its poverty, simplicity borne out of ignorance, supernaturalism etc. His was a sad vision of life. That is why until 2000, he was called a ‘Pessimist’. • But, postmodern critics think him otherwise. They prefer calling him a ‘Meliorist’ instead. Meliriorism is a concept that states that the world (life) can be made better by constant optimistic efforts against the adversities. And man possess that strength.
- 7. • Hardy’ wrotea drama named ‘The Dynasts’ also. The Dynasts, is “neither a poem, nor a play, nor even a story. It is a shooting- script.” ‘The Dynasts’ presents Hardy’s idea of “evolutionary meliriorism,” Though the play has gone into oblivion, its philosophy survived and has become a vital life-concept today. • And surprisingly, a close reading of all Hardy writings provide testimony to this theory.
- 8. • What isa short story? Tagore defined short story in the following Bengali words: Chhota pran, chhota byatha chhota chhota duhkha katha Nitantai sahaj saral Sahasra bismrti raxi pratyaha yetechhe bhasi Tari du-chariti axrujal. Nahi barnanar chhata ghatanar ghanaghata Nahi tattva nahi upadex Antare atrpti rabe sabga kari mane habe Shes hayeo haila na ses. Translation: (Simple events of life, happy or sad, Some sad strings from the train of forgetfulness, Not fraught with heavy descriptions, Not crowded with events, No advice, no philosophy Only the feeling that the story is not yet over Although there is no more to read.) It is considered as the best defn. of a short story in any language.
- 9. THOMASHARDY,OM In Europe, EdgarAllan Poe is considered as the inventor of short stories. Beside Poe, Anton Chekov, Somerset Maugham, Guy de Maupassant are the other three great story tellers.
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- 13. THOMASHARDY• Hardy’s Tales:- ThomasHardy wrote a total of fifty-three short stories, collecting thirty-seven in four volumes: i.Wessex Tales (six short stories written between 1879 and 1888); ii. A Group of Noble Dames (ten short stories written between 1878 and 1890); iii. Life's Little Ironies (nine short stories written between 1882 and 1893); iv. A Changed Man (twelve short stories written between 1881 and 1900). Writing primarily for an appreciation of narrative, Hardy wrote simply because he loved to tell short stories.
- 14. THOMASHARDY Although Hardy iscalled one of the greatest short story writers, his concept differed from orthodox definitions of Allen Poe, Anton Chekov or Rabindranath Tagore-the other distinguished story tellers. His was essentially a pastoral voice, narrating his stories like tellers of medieval folk tales. Hardy compares story telling to Samuel Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling. He wrote “We tale-tellers are all Ancient Mariners, and none of us is warranted in stopping Wedding Guests (in other words, the hurrying public) unless he has something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and woman“.(Millgate 268). Hardy explains the actual substance of the story is what creates a powerful narrative. All Hardy stories had real occurrences. Hardy collected the stories from old newspaper cuts and from the mouth of some aged idle gossipers in the roadside inns. However, most of the stories, he heard from the mouth of his father.
- 15. Wessex-a fictionalized dreamlandof Hardy
- 16. THOMASHARDY Wessex meant "kingdomof the West Saxons“. Wessex i,e, "kingdom of the West Saxons") was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from 519 until England was unifiedby Æthelstan in the early 10th century. It was founded by Cerdic and Cynric in 495. Wessex became a Christian kingdom after Cenwalh was baptised and was expanded under his rule. As a result of the Mercian conquest of the northern portion of its early territories in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire (present day Oxbridge), the Thames and the Avon formed the northern boundary of Wessex, while its heartland lay in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Dorsetshire and Somerset. The system of shires which was later to form the basis of local administration throughout Great Britain originated in Wessex, and had been established by the mid-8th century.
- 17. THOMAS HARDY • Hardy’sWessex:-The English author Thomas Hardy set all of his major novels in the south and southwest of England. He named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the unification of England by Æthelstan. Although the places that appear in his novels actually exist, in many cases he gave the place a fictional name.For example, Hardy's home town of Dorchester is called Casterbridge in his books, notably in The Mayor of Casterbridge.In an 1895 preface to the novel Far From the Madding Crowd he described Wessex as "a merely realistic dream country".
- 18. THOMAS HARDY Hardy's resurrectionof the name "Wessex" is largely responsible for the popular modern use of the term to describe the south-west region of England (with the exception of Cornwall and arguably Devon); today, a panoply of organisations take their name from Hardy to describe their relationship to the area.[5] Hardy's conception of Wessex as a separate, cohesive geographical and political identity has proved powerful, despite the fact it was originally created purely as an artistic conceit, and has spawned a lucrative tourist trade, and even a devolutionist Wessex Regionalist Party.
- 19. Wessex-a fictionalized dreamlandof Hardy