Under the Greenwood Tree. A Pural Painting of the Dutch School

Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth.Charles Dickens was another important influence. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society.