I.Son
of a stonemason in Dorsetshire; studied architecture.
II.Major
Novels: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874); The Return of the
Native (1878); The Mayor of Casterbridge (1884-85); Tess of
the d’Urbervilles (1891); Jude the Obscure (1895).
III.Created
his own mythical countryside: Wessex. The novels illustrate Man’s
insignificance, the struggle for existence, Nature’s indifference to man, and the
importance of chance and coincidence.
IV.Poetry:
Seven volumes (1898-1928); The Dynasts (1903-08).
V.Pessimism
or Meliorism? The last Victorian?
VI.