“...the social mould civilization fits us into have no more relation to our actual shapes than the conventional shapes of the constellations have to the real star-patterns. I am called Mrs. Richard Phillotson, living a calm wedded life with my counterpart of that name. But I am not really Mrs. Richard Phillotson, but a woman tossed about, all alone, with aberrant passions, and unaccountable antipathies...”

English novelist, poet and architect

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist, poet and architect. A Victorian realist, he wrote about the tensions of his time and looked closely at social change, especially in rural Britain. He is known for novels and poetry shaped by both realism and Romanticism, including the influence of William Wordsworth. His work is often sharply critical of Victorian society, and it pays close attention to the changing position of rural people in Britain, especially in his native South West England.