Approximately one half of Hardy's sixty-year literary career was devoted to the novel. From 1871 until 1897, Hardy wrote fifteen novels, fourteen of which were published. His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, never found a publisher, and Hardy eventually burned the manuscript.

Below is a list of Hardy's novels with their dates of publication. For further bibliographic information, along with photographs of sites associated with each novel, click on the novel's title.

• The Poor Man and the Lady, never published
• Desperate Remedies, 1871
• Under the Greenwood Tree, 1872
• A Pair of Blue Eyes, 1873
• Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874
• The Hand of Ethelberta, 1876
• The Return of the Native, 1878
• The Trumpet Major, 1880
• A Laodicean, 1881
• Two on a Tower, 1882
• The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886
• The Woodlanders, 1887
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles, 1891
• Jude the Obscure, 1895
• The Well-Beloved, 1897