A Classics Challenge - January Prompt

Katherine @ November's Autumn has posted the January prompts for A Classics Challenge. There are three levels and I plan to do each one separately through the month. I'm reading Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

Level 1 - The Author......Who is the author? What do they like? When where they born? Where did they live? What does their handwriting look like? What are some of the other novels they've written? What is an interesting and random fact about their life?

Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)

Portait by William Strang 1893

Thomas Hardy was born on the 2 June,1840 at Higher Bockhampton, a small hamlet east of Dorchester in the parish of Stinsford, Dorset.The cottage that was his birthplace had been built by his grandfather and it was where, in 1874, he would write Far From the Madding Crowd.

At 16 he was apprenticed to a local architect and six years later moved to London where he continued as an assistant architect until the success of Far From the Madding Crowd enabled him to leave his career and focus on his writing.

After a succession of moves, in 1885 Hardy and his wife settled at Max Gate, the home he designed and had built by his brother, and where he would spend the rest of his life.

Max Gate

Other novels by Thomas Hardy include

• The Return of the Native (1878)
• The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
• Jude the Obscure (1895)

Thomas Hardy's handwriting

Following his death in 1928 there was controversy about where he would be laid to rest. His family wanted to follow his wish to be buried at Stinsford while his executor insisted he be interred in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. A compromise was reached and his ashes placed in the Abbey while his heart was buried with his first wife, Emma, at Stinsford.

January Prompt - Level 2 & 3