Perhaps the first major poet of the 20th century, Hardy was born near Dorchester in 1840, and during the 19th century, enjoyed success as one of great novelists of the Victorian Era.
Perhaps the first major poet of the 20th century, Hardy was born near Dorchester in 1840, and during the 19th century, enjoyed success as one of great novelists of the Victorian Era. At the turn of the century, he shifted from novels to poetry, which some critics regard as the first signs of a shift in English poetry.