Thomas Hardy started out as an engineer, excelled in architecture, and won a British Institute of Engineers award with a dissertation on colored brick and porcelain. But his love for literature led him to abandon architecture and study literature, then write poetry and then stories. "The Paradoxes of Life" is a collection of short stories from the most beautiful works of Thomas Hardy in his literary life. Perhaps the most important thing that distinguishes it is the honesty that touches every person who reads it, to the point that he feels that he is watching it with his own eyes. It is also characterized by very precise tightness. The reader will find that most of the stories take place in the quiet countryside, and this is no wonder, as Hardy lived among the countryside for long periods of his life.