Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Hardy had a difficult time finding a publisher for Tess of the D'Urbervilles because of all the sexy stuff. (Source: Dolin, Tim, ed. "A History of the Text."Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Womanby Thomas Hardy. London: Penguin, 1998.)
Even though the county of Wessex in which Tess of the D'Urbervilles takes place is a fictionalized version of a real area of England, many Hardy fans have tried to find the "real life" houses and valleys that inspired Hardy (Source).