About the Author

Formerly a prize-winning architectural student, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) went on to become a prolific novelist and poet. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, set in the 'partly real, partly dream-country' of Wessex, was at first refused publication and then published in censored form, shocking readers in the challenge it posed to social and sexual mores.

Hardy's novels Under the Greenwood Tree, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, Two on a Tower, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure are also published in the Penguin English Library.