Places and Literature: Thomas Hardy and Dorset

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a British poet and writer. Many of his novels are set in the countryside of Dorset in the southwest of England, and they often describe the unhappy side of life. His characters are often shown struggling against their own feelings and against fate.
Thomas Hardy, internationally renowned poet and novelist, was born in 1840 at Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester and spent most of his life in Dorset. A lovely thatched cottage was his birthplace (pictures above). 2008 marked the eightieth anniversary of the writer's death on 11th January 1928.
The great majority of locations in Hardy's celebrated novels and stories are set within West Dorset. Among these are 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', 'Under the Greewood Tree', 'Far from The Madding Crowd', 'The Woodlanders' and 'Return of the Native'.
Hardy is reputed to taken inspiration for 'Tess of the D'Ubervilles' from the case of Martha Browne, who was tried at Dorchester's Old Crown Court & Cells in 1856. The last woman to be publicly hanged in Dorset, Martha Browne was sentenced to death for murdering her husband with an axe.
Hardy adopted the historical name of 'Wessex' as the name for the 'partly real, partly-dream country' in which many of his works were set. Drawing inspiration from the people and landscapes of Dorset, as well as his own life, he went on to write an impressive 14 novels and over 50 short stories in 25 years. These literary works contain a mixture of real and fictional names for towns, villages and landscape features, all drawn from Hardy's extensive knowledge of the area.