<P> Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex; initially based on the medieval Anglo - Saxon kingdom, Hardy's Wessex eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire and much of Berkshire, in southwest and south central England . Two of his novels, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, were listed in the top 50 on the BBC's survey The Big Read . </P> <P> Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (then Upper Bockhampton), a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (1811--1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder, and married his mother Jemima (née Hand; 1813--1904) in Beaminster, towards the end of 1839 . Jemima was well - read, and she educated Thomas until he went to his first school at Bockhampton at the age of eight . For several years he attended Mr. Last's Academy for Young Gentlemen in Dorchester, where he learned Latin and demonstrated academic potential . Because Hardy's family lacked the means for a university education, his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, when he became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect . </P> <P> Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862; there he enrolled as a student at King's College London . He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association . He joined Arthur Blomfield's practice as assistant architect in April 1862 and worked with Blomfield on All Saints' parish church in Windsor, Berkshire in 1862--64 . A reredos, possibly designed by Hardy, was discovered behind panelling at All Saints' in August 2016 . In the mid-1860s, Hardy was in charge of the excavation of part of the graveyard of St Pancras Old Church prior to its destruction when the Midland Railway was extended to a new terminus at St Pancras . </P> <P> Hardy never felt at home in London, because he was acutely conscious of class divisions and his social inferiority . During this time he became interested in social reform and the works of John Stuart Mill . He was also introduced by his Dorset friend Horace Moule to the works of Charles Fourier and Auguste Comte . After five years, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset, settling in Weymouth, and decided to dedicate himself to writing . </P>

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