What? Thomas Hardy’s not cool?

Thomas Hardy and George Eliot fall out of fashion

Works by Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and EM Forster have fallen in popularity over the last two decades, according to new research of the literary canon.

The screen adaptation of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, starring Dame Judi Dench (second from left), has dramatically increased the popularity of the book at libraries Cranford Miss Tomkinson (Deborah Findlay), Miss Matty Jenkins (Judi Dench), Miss Octavia Pole (Imelda Staunton), Mrs Forrester (Julia McKenzie)Photo: BBC

By Jasper Copping

9:30AM GMT 11 Nov 2012

They are the books that have stood the test of time – not to mention the ones we are all supposed to have read.

But an analysis of reading habits has revealed that some of the most celebrated classics of English literature have fallen out of fashion in recent years.

Works by Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and EM Forster have seen their popularity plummet over the last two decades, while those by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and George Orwell have fared much better.

The study involves a comparison of lending data from Britain’s libraries for 50 classics by British and Irish authors from the literary canon from the early 1990s, a decade ago, and last year.

It shows some clear winners and losers, with all featured works by the first three named authors rising in the list over the period and all of those by other three falling.