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 alike.
Thomas Hardy, geb. 1840, ging nach der Architektenlehre nach London und begann neben seiner Arbeit als Kirchenrestaurator zu schreiben. Ab 1871 Veröffentlichungen (Wessex-Romane). Der Autor verstarb 1928; er hinterließ ein umfangreiches Werk - außer Romanen auch fast 1000 Gedichte.
