| 1840 | The eldest of four children, Thomas Hardy is born on June 2 in Higher Brockhampton, near Dorchester in the county of Dorset. His father, Thomas, is a master stonemason, and his mother, Jemima, teaches her son to read at an early age. Hardy’s frail health prevents him from entering the village school until age eight. |
| 1848 | Hardy enters the village school, where he soon surpasses the other students. He reads Samuel Johnson, John Dryden, and William Shakespeare, among others, and develops a love of education that will persist throughout his lifetime. He cultivates his love of music, playing the fiddle with his father in the parish choir. |
| 1850 | Jemima enrolls her son in a school in Dorchester, where he studies for the next six years. |
| 1856 | After helping his father design renovations for a country church, Hardy is awarded an apprenticeship to the Dorchester architect John Hicks. Disappointed at not having the means to attend Oxford or Cambridge, he studies Greek and other subjects in his free time and develops a close friendship with Horace Moule, a vicar’s son who becomes his mentor. |
| 1862 | Hardy leaves Dorset to work for a prominent architect, Arthur Blomfield, in London. He finds time to nurture his creative writing but fails in attempts to publish his poetry. He visits museums and plays, takes French lessons, and attends a reading by Charles Dickens. |
| 1863 | Hardy becomes engaged to Eliza Nicholls. He is awarded an essay prize by the Royal Institute of Architects. |
| 1865 | Hardy’s first published essay, “How I Built Myself a House,” appears in the Dorchester paper Chambers’s Journal. |
| 1866 | The engagement to Eliza Nicholls is broken off. |
| 1867 | Failing health necessitates a return to Dorchester, where |
| Hardy again works for John Hicks. He writes his first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady (authored by “the Poor Man”). | |
| 1869 | The Poor Man and the Lady is rejected for publication. Hardy takes a position in Weymouth as an architect specializing in church restoration. |
| 1870 | Hardy meets his future wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford, while on a trip to Cornwall. |
| 1871 | Tinsley Brothers publishes the novel Desperate Remedies at Hardy’s expense. |
| 1872 | Hardy moves back to London, where he creates architectural plans for schools. Emma’s father refuses to allow Hardy to marry her. Hardy publishes Under the Greenwood Tree with Tinsley; another novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes, is serialized in Tinsley’s Magazine and the New York Tribune. |
| 1873 | Hardy is devastated by the suicide of his close friend Horace Moule. |
| 1874 | Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy’s first commercially successful novel, appears. Hardy and Emma marry. Over the next several years the two move many times between London and Dorset, and travel abroad. |
| 1878 | Return of the Native, another novel, appears. |
| 1880 | The Trumpet Major, a novel, is published. Hardy suffers from internal hemorrhaging and is confined to bed for many months. During this time, he dictates a novel, A Laodicean, to his wife. |
| 1885 | Hardy moves into Max Gate, the home he and Emma have designed and built near the city of Dorchester. He will write some of his greatest novels here. |
| 1886 | Another novel, The Mayor of Casterbridge, is published (Casterbridge is Hardy’s name for Dorchester). |
| 1888 | Wessex Tales, Hardy’s first collection of short stories, is published. |
| 1891 | Tess of the d’Urbervilles appears after being severely edited by the publisher. The novel raises a storm of controversy for its treatment of marriage and religion. Many praise Hardy as England’s greatest novelist. |
| 1892 | Hardy’s father dies. |
| 1893 | On a trip to Dublin, Hardy meets Florence Henniker, with |
| whom he has a relationship. Marital troubles between Hardy and Emma are ongoing. | |
| 1895 | Jude the Obscure appears after it is serialized in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine as The Simpletons and Enduring Hearts. Like Tess, Jude is highly controversial. It is Hardy’s last novel, and he turns to poetry. |
| 1904 | Hardy’s mother dies. |
| 1912 | Emma Hardy dies, inspiring the highly personal “Poems of 1912-13.” |
| 1914 | Hardy marries his longtime secretary, Florence Dugdale. The onset of World War I causes Hardy intense sadness and disillusionment. |
| 1919 | Collected Poems is published. |
| 1920 | Hardy is celebrated in England and abroad on his eightieth birthday. |
| 1928 | Hardy dies of a heart attack on January 11 at Max Gate. His ashes are placed in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey in London; his heart is buried next to the remains of his first wife, Emma, in Stinsford. |