Thomas Hardy's Wessex Thomas Hardy's Wessex The English author Thomas Hardy set all of his major novels in the south and southwest of England. He named the area "Wessex" after the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed in this part of that country prior to the unification of England by Æthelstan. Although the places that appear in his novels actually exist, in many cases he gave the place a fictional name. For example, Hardy's home town of Dorchester is called Casterbridge in his books, notably in "The Mayor of Casterbridge". In an 1895 preface to the novel "Far From the Madding Crowd" he described
The Guardian's 100 Best Novels Written in English Piercy. 7. The Guardian's 100 Best Novels Written in English "The Guardians 100 best novels"' is a list of the best English-language novels as selected by Robert McCrum for "The Guardian". 1. Don Quixote Miguel De Cervantes 2. Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 3. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 4. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 5. Tom Jones Henry Fielding 6. Clarissa Samuel Richardson 7. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 8. Dangerous Liaisons Pierre Choderlos De Laclos 9. Emma Jane Austen 10. Frankenstein Mary Shelley 11. Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 12. The Black Sheep Honoré De Balzac 13. The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal