On this day...

King William IV died in 1837, leading to the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne of England and beginning arguably one of the most productive literary eras. Described by Matthew Arnold as 'a deeply unpoetical age', the Victorian era was dominated by the novel. Yet these works were not the managable romances of Austen, but heavy tomes of social injustice - their tortuous syntax leading Henry James, guilty himself of several, to name them 'loose baggy monsters'. The main culprits include Charles Dickens, author of almost a dozen major novels, George Eliot of 'Middlemarch' fame and the man of tragic persuasion, Thomas Hardy.

In conjunction with the growing suffrage movement, the Victorian era also saw the rise of the female novelist, most notably highlighted by the Bronte sisters, but supplemented also by names such as Elizabeth Gaskell. English drama is perhaps harder to find, but the one man could make up for it all, as the brilliance and wit of Oscar Wilde takes the stage by storm, preceeding the later George Bernard Shaw, and overshadowing the foreign imports of Chekhov and Ibsen. Despite Arnold's claim, Victorian literature was by no means devoid of poetry, producing Robert Browning, master of the dramatic monologue, blank verse devotee Alfred Lord Tennyson and romantic poet Christina Rossetti.

Hardy Player takes to stage at 104...

A centenarian has taken to the stage, all for the sake of some old documents. Norrie Woodhall, 104, is the last remaining original member of the 'Hardy Players', a group cast and directed by author Thomas Hardy himself. Appearing as Tess's sister Liza Lu in the stage version of his novel in 1928, Woodhall, 82 years on, has reprised her role to raise money for the Hardy Players Manuscript Fund. The campaign, based in Dorset, aims to retain a collection of Hardy's works in the county for future generations. The collection of work for sale includes scripts, some with handwritten production notes, programmes, posters and stage set models. Including all the prospective funds from Ms. Woodhall's performance, the campaign aims to raise £58,000. A video about the story can be found here

On this day...

Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard', was published in 1751. Known as one of the 'graveyard poets' of the late 1700s, along with Oliver Goldsmith, Christopher Smart and William Cowper, Gray wrote the poem in a graveyard of a church Stoke Pages, Buckinghamshire. Its stoic and reflective tone endeared it to the British public upon its publication, and also leant it to being translated into Latin and Greek.

It is still one of the most fequently quoted poems in the English language, and indeed a passage was used by General James Wolfe in the Seven Years War to rouse his troops. Such was the poem's success, it was the most reprinted poem of the 18th century, that Gray was offered the post of Poet Laureate in 1757 upon the death of Colly Cibber, yet he refused. The poem has donated several phrases into the English lexicon, including; 'paths of glory', 'kindred spirits' and 'far from the madding crowd', which Hardy famously used for the title of one of his novels.

On this day...

English novelist Thomas Hardy died in 1928, at the age of 87. Born in Dorchester, or what he might term Casterbridge,  Hardy showed great academic potential at a young age, yet was denied higher education due to a lack of familial wealth. Instead he gained an apprenticeship as an architect, winning prizes from institutions such as the Royal Institute of British Architects.Yet five years later, with his health in decline, he decided to concentrate solely on his writings, beginning one of the most successful literary careers in British history. The works that followed have become almost synonymous with tradegy; striking a curious mix of Hardy's agnosticism and consequential beliefs in fate, with his beloved countryside and fictional county of 'Wessex'. After the popularity of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' and 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' came the scandal that surrounded 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' and 'Jude the Obscure'; the latter's reception resulting in his withdrawal from prose writing. His subsequent poetry, was much influenced by his first wife Emma Gifford, whose rocky relationship was apparently negated and forgotten with her death. Portraying social concepts beyond his era, he influenced later writers D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.

On this day...

Thomas Hardy's novel, 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', began to be published in serial form in 1886. Subtitled 'The Life and Death of a Man of Character', the novel ran in weekly instalments from January 2nd to 15th May in both 'The Graphic' and the American 'Harper's Weekly'. On May 10th, it was bound together in book form, with only 758 copies printed. Like later novels 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' and 'Jude the Obscure', 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' holds many tragic qualities, beginning with the fateful decision of protagonist Michael Henchard to sell his wife and child. Ultimately what follows can be seen as an in-depth character study, examining how the deeds of the past haunt and dictate those of the present.

On this day...

British novelist, poet and critic Ford Madox Ford was born in 1873. Born Ford Hermann Heuffer, he changed his name in 1919, due to unpopular German connotations following the First World War. War proved a continuous theme in Ford's life; he worked for the War Propaganda Bureau, producing two books and afterwards enlisted in the Welsh Regiment. The theme, not surprisingly, also ran through his literature, and inspired his most famous work, 'The Good Soldier'. The novel, originally called 'The Saddest Story' was supposedly started on Ford's birthday, to 'show what [he] could do'. Critics have praised the work, calling it, 'the best French novel in the English language' and Ford, 'one of the dozen greatest novelists of the century'. Ford is also known for his journalistic achievements. He founded both 'The English Review' and 'The Transatlantic Review'; publishing authors such as Thomas Hardy, Henry James and Joseph Conrad, and giving a publishing debut to D.H. Lawrence. Ford is supposedly the model for Braddocks in Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises'.

Forensic etymology?...

Physicists believed that they have found a way to identify the 'literary fingerprint' of each induvidual author. Published in the 'New Journal of Physics', the Sewdish scientists used books by Thomas Hardy, Herman Melville and D.H. Lawrence to develop a formula that would analyse different writing styles. By finding the frequency with which authors use new words in their writings, and the rate at which this drops off, the researchers were able to find distinct patterns in the works; a pattern which weas consistent for the entire works of each author. The supporters of this theory believe that it might be applied to solve disputes over authorship, and find lost works by famous writers.

Religious approval for Hughes?...

Poet Ted Hughes may be honoured with a plaque in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner. The Dean of Westminster said that he had received a number of letters persuading him to the cause; a cause supported by fellow poets Seamus Heaney and Andrew Motion. A former Poet Laureate, Hughes is best known for his marriage to Sylvia Plath, whose subsequent suicide in 1963 shocked the literary world. If selected for a plaque, Hughes would be the first since the man he succeeded as Poet Laureate in 1984, John Betjeman; and would join the likes of Thomas Hardy, William Blake and T.S. Eliot. Hughes died in 1998, and is described by Heaney as 'one of the vital presences in 20th century poetry.'

On this day...

Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species', was published in 1859. Considered the foundation of evolutionary biology, Darwin introduced the theory that a population evolves through the process of natural selection. The book included evidence that Darwin had gathered from his Beagle expedition across the Atlantic in the 1830s. Although at first the work incurred a hostile reception, it immediately sold out its initial print run and a further five editions were released before 1872. Perhaps one reason for the book's astonishing popularity, was its representation of a Victorian era seeing a growing divide between religion and science; many people were struggling with the faith that had previous been taken as incontrovertible and Darwin was giving this doubt a voice. Numerous Victorian literary figures encountered similar reservations, the most famous being Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and George Eliot. The two hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth was celebrated earlier this year.

On this day...

Thomas Hardy's 'Far From the Madding Crowd' was published in 1874. Like so many of Hardy's works, the novel originally appeared in serial form, debuting in 'Cornhill Magazine'; a Victorian literary journal illustrated, among others, by John Everett Millais. Having started life as an architect, 'Far From the Madding Crowd' was Hardy's first successful foray into the literary scene and only the second novel to bear his name; the first being the original cliff-hanger, 'A Pair of Blue Eyes'. It was also the first of Hardy's works to strike the tragic note for which he is best remembered, numerous aspects of the novel foreshadowing elements in both 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' and 'Jude the Obscure'; yet, unlike his later works, the protagonist still manages to find happiness. The book finished 10th on The Guardian's list of greatest love stories of all time.

On this day...

'Jude the Obscure', one of the most controversial novels of its time, was published in 1895. Its embodiment of modern ideas and themes, many too modern for the religious and prudish Victorian society to grappple with, led to it being branded 'Jude the Obscene'. Thomas Hardy, following the moral outcry over his previous novel, 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', had chosen to entertain the notions of redundancy of marriage and religious hypocrisy; a bold statement, yet one which heralded the end of his prose writing, he himself stating 'a man must be a fool to deliberately stand up to be shot at'. For his remaining thirty-two years, Hardy wrote only poetry and drama, yet continued to make political statements, most notably against war in 'The Man He Killed'.