Thomas Hardy trained to be an architect before moving to London, and
won several awards for his work. His many novels take place in the
fictional county of Wessex, based partly on other counties such as
Devon and Dorset. The setting was first introduced in his book "Far
from the Madding Crowd" in 1874, and became the setting for his future
stories, such as "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and "Jude the Obscure."
His novels were written to upset Victorian sensibilities - and often
succeeded. In the end, the backlash against his work discouraged him
from writing novels permanently.
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