Thomas Hardy was a 19th-century novelist and 20th-century poet. He was born in 1840 in the village of Higher Bockhampton.His mother was a well-read woman who taught Thomas at home until he was eight years old and able to begin school. His father was a stone mason Hardy's family didn't have enough money to send him to university, so at the age of sixteen he began training with a local architect. He moved to London in 1862, but he didn't feel comfortable there. As the son of a working man, he often felt like an outsider in middle-class soaety.His work as an architect took him to Cornwallin 1870, where he was asked to rebuild a beautiful old church. There, he met Emma Gifford,who became his first wife.At that point, Hardy had been writing novels for several years, but he did not find success until his fourth book, Far from the Madding Crowd （1874）. This novel brought him enough money to be able to give up his job as an architect. In the autumn of 1874, Thomas and Emma were married, and nine years later, they moved to a house in Dorset that Hardy had designed himself. Unfortunately, their marriage quickly became unhappy, and for years the couple rarely spoke to each other.During these years, Hardy continued to write novels, often stories that critiased society, marriage and religion. This was espeaally true of his last two novels, which are thought to be his best： Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891） and Iude the Obscure (1895）.In 1896, Hardy stopped writing fiction and turned hi.s full attention to poetry, which he had always preferred. His most successful collection was Poems of 1912-1913. These poems were written after Emma's death,in 1912, and most of them express deep sadness and regret as Hardy looked back at their life together.In 1914, he married his secretary, Florence Dugdale, who was thirty-nine years younger than he was. Hardy continued to publish poetry wellinto his eighties and his work was greatly admired by many 20th-century writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Robert Frost and Virginia Woolf. In 1910, Hardy received the Order of Merit and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was nominated again in 1921, but was never a winner.Thomas Hardy died in 1928. His ashes were taken to Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, where England's greatest writers are honoured.However, his heart was removed and buried in Dorset with Emma.