There are countless Thomas Hardy courses, tutorials, articles available online, but for some, having a book is still a necessity to learn. This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. Far from the Madding Crowd (Penguin Classics) (2003)
In Thomas Hardy’s first major literary success, independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. One of his first works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, Hardy’s novel of swift passion and slow…
2. Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Penguin Classics) (2003)
When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin’ Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, subtitled “A Pure Woman,” is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy’s novels. Based on the three-volume first edition that shocked readers when first…
3. The Return of the Native (Penguin Classics) (1999)
Tempestuous Eustacia Vye passes her days dreaming of passionate love and the escape it may bring from the small community of Egdon Heath. Hearing that Clym Yeobright is to return from Paris, she sets her heart on marrying him, believing that through him she can leave rural life and find fulfilment elsewhere. But she is to be disappointed, for Clym has dreams of his own, and they have little in common with Eustacia’s. Their unhappy marriage causes havoc in the lives of those close to them, in particular Damon Wildeve, Eustacia’s former lover, Clym’s mother and his…
4. The Woodlanders (Oxford World’s Classics) (2009)
Love and the erratic heart are at the center of Hardy’s “woodland story.” Set in the beautiful Blackmoor Vale, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-to-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of the dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Felice Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked. Hardy’s powerful novel depicts individuals in thrall to desire and the natural law that motivates them.This is the only…
5. Under the Greenwood Tree (2015)
Under The Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy tells the story of the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically involved with a new school mistress, Fancy Day. This is a classic tale and one of Hardy’s most loved works, a great addition to any collection. Any profits made from the sale of this book will go towards supporting the Freeriver Community project, a project that aims to support community and encourage well-being. To learn more about the Freeriver Community project please visit the website- www.freerivercommunity.com…
6. Thomas Hardy – Jude The Obscure (2016)
Hardy’s masterpiece traces a poor stonemason’s ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared — marriage, religion, education — and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought….
7. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (2017)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Booksize: 8,5 x 11…
8. Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy ((Wordsworth Poetry Library)) (1998)
Thomas Hardy started composing poetry in the heyday of Tennyson and Browning. He was still writing with unimpaired power sixty years later, when Eliot and Yeats were the leading names in the field. His extraordinary stamina and a consistent individuality of style and vision made him a survivor, immune to literary fashion. At the start of the twenty-first century his reputation stands higher than it ever did, even in his own lifetime. He is now recognised not only as a great poet, but as one who is widely loved. He speaks with directness, humanity and humour to scholarly or ordinary readers…
9. The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved and the Well-Beloved (Penguin Classics) (1998)
In (1892) and (1897), Hardy writes two different versions of a strange story set in the weird landscape of Portland.The central figure is a man obsessed both with the search for his ideal woman and with sculpting the perfect figure of a naked Aphrodite. The pursuit finally fixes on three women called Avice Caro—grandmother, mother and daughter—in a way that mixes tragedy and high farce.The books were written one before and one after his “last” novel, (1895). Both stories are richly ambiguous but the first shows the successful exercise of masculine power and the second…
10. Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (1998)
Thomas Hardy abandoned the novel form at the turn of the century, probably after public reaction to Jude the Obscure, but continued to write verse displaying a wide variety of metrical styles and stanza forms and a broad scope of tone and attitude. This definitive volume contains selections from his numerous collections published between 1898 and 1928.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works…
11. Tess of the d’Urbervilles: By Thomas Hardy – Illustrated (2017)
How is this book unique? About Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy’s masterpiece, Tess of the d’Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England….
12. Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)
Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy’s fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. Critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition….
13. Tess of the D’urbervilles (2014)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth century English novel, Tess of the d’Ubervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of late Victorian England….
14. Tess of the D’urbervilles (2015)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy’s masterpiece, Tess of the d’Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England….
Best Thomas Hardy Books: The Ultimate Collection
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Genesis and download some thomas hardy books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Thomas Hardy’s Elegiac Prose and Poetry
Author(s): Galia Benziman
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2018, Size: 1 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2254831
Poems of Thomas Hardy: A New Selection by Ned Halley
Author(s): Thomas Hardy
Publisher: Macmillan, Year: 2017, Size: 5 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1714349
Thomas Hardy and History
Author(s): Fred Reid, Thomas Hardy
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2017, Size: 15 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2133920
Food in the Novels of Thomas Hardy : Production and Consumption
Author(s): Kim Salmons
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Year: 2017, Size: 2 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 2134933
Thomas Hardy and Victorian Communication: Letters, Telegrams and Postal Systems
Author(s): Karin Koehler
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2016, Size: 3 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1532954
Thomas Hardy: Folklore and Resistance
Author(s): Jacqueline Dillion
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, Year: 2016, Size: 8 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1582519
Thomas Hardy’s Pastoral : An Unkindly May
Author(s): Indy Clark
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2015, Size: 1 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1685956
Thomas Hardy, time and narrative : a narratological approach to his novels
Author(s): Hardy, Thomas; Ireland, Ken
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2014, Size: 1 Mb, Download: pdf
ID: 1434013
Please note that this booklist is not final. Some books are truly hot items according to The New York Times, others are written by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Drop a comment if you have any feedback on the list.