Wessex Novels and Tales of Thomas Hardy are set in the south and southwest of England, in the area Hardy named "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the unification of England by Æthelstan. These tales depict strong characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances.Wessex Novels:Under the Greenwood TreeFar from the Madding CrowdThe Return of the NativeThe Mayor of CasterbridgeThe WoodlandersTess of the d'UrbervillesJude the ObscureA Pair of Blue EyesThe Trumpet-MajorTwo on a TowerThe Romantic Adventures of a MilkmaidThe Well-BelovedWessex Tales:An Imaginative WomanThe Three StrangersThe Withered ArmFellow-TownsmenInterlopers at the KnapThe Distracted PreacherThomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England.His most famous novels include Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and Jude the Obscure.
