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Thomas Hardy

15 free books by Thomas Hardy. 15 you can read right here.

Born 1840 in Dorchester · Died 1928 in Dorchester

writer, novelist, poet, screenwriter · United Kingdom · associated with naturalism

Notable works: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure

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Facts from Wikidata (Q132805), retrieved 2026-09-26.

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Quotes from Thomas Hardy’s books

Verified word for word in the text: each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. How RedLectern is built.

Far from the Madding Crowd

From Project Gutenberg e-text #107 (public domain in the USA).

“All romances end at marriage.”

— Spoken by a character · XLI. SUSPICION—FANNY IS SENT FOR

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It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

— Spoken by a character · LI. BATHSHEBA TALKS WITH HER OUTRIDER

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Jude the Obscure

From Project Gutenberg e-text #153 (public domain in the USA).

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons!

— Spoken by a character · Part Sixth: AT CHRISTMINSTER AGAIN

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The Return of the Native

From Project Gutenberg e-text #122 (public domain in the USA).

The great inviolate place had an ancient permanence which the sea cannot claim. Who can say of a particular sea that it is old? Distilled by the sun, kneaded by the moon, it is renewed in a year, in a day, or in an hour. The sea changed, the fields changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people changed, yet Egdon remained.

Book First: THE THREE WOMENRead in context →

Desperate Remedies

From Project Gutenberg e-text #3044 (public domain in the USA).

With all, the beautiful things of the earth become more dear as they elude pursuit; but with some natures utter elusion is the one special event which will make a passing love permanent for ever.

I. THE EVENTS OF THIRTY YEARSRead in context →

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