Thomas Hardy - the Novelist; Courtney Burke and Lauren Stigers

Thomas Hardy regarded himself as primarily a poet, though he initially gained fame as a novelist. His first novel was never published as it was thought to be too controversial, and as a result, he destroyed all the manuscripts of it. His next two novels were published anonymously and he believed they would be more commercially appealing. His 1873 novel A Pair of Blue Eyes was the first to be published under his name, and it is believed that the term "cliffhanger" originated from this novel, as one of its protagonists is left literally hanging off of a cliff. His work displayed elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. His book Tess of the d'Urbervilles garnered criticism for it sympathetically portraying a "fallen woman" and it was initially denied publication. Said novel had a subtitle of A Pure Woman: Faithfully Presented which was intended to shock the Victorian middle class. Hardy published a book called Jude the Obscure which attracted even more criticism for its explicit treatment of sex and was colloquially called "Jude the Obscene." Despite his success, he felt disgusted at how his two greatest works were received publicly and eventually gave up writing fiction.