finest artistic product of Hardy’s genius.  It contains strongly-drawn characters, dramatic incidents, a most interesting story, and some homely native humor.  The heroine, Bathsheba, is one of the brainiest and most independent of all Hardy’s women.  She has grave faults; but the tragic experiences through which she passes soften her and finally mold her into a lovable woman.  Steady, resourceful, dumb Gabriel Oak and clever, fencing Sergeant Troy are delightful foils to each other, and are every inch human.

[Illustration:  MAX GATE.  The Home of Hardy near Dorchester (the Casterbridge of the Novels).]

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) and The Woodlanders (1886-1887) deserve mention with Far from the Madding Crowd and The Return of the Native as comprising the best four novels of the so-called Wessex stories.

Hardy’s later works exhibit an increasing absorption in ethical and religious problems. Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1892) is one of Hardy’s most powerful novels.  It has for its heroine a strong, sweet, appealing woman, whose loving character and tragic fate are presented with fearless vigor and deep sympathetic insight.  The personal intensity of the author, which is felt to pervade this book, is present again in Jude the Obscure (1895), that record of an aspiring soul, struggling against hopeless odds, heavy incumbrances, and sordid realities.

General Characteristics.—­Hardy’s novels leave a sense of gloom upon the reader.  He explains his view of modern life “as a thing to be put up with, replacing the zest for existence which was so intense in early civilization.”  His pessimistic philosophy strikes at the core of life and human endeavor.  Sorrow appears in his work, not as a punishment for crime, but as an unavoidable result of human life and its inevitable mistakes.  Events, sometimes comic but generally tragic, play upon the weaknesses of his characters and bring about entanglements, misunderstandings, and suffering far in excess of the deserts of these well-intentioned people.  No escape is suggested.  Resignation to misfits, mistakes, and misfortune is what remains.

Hardy is one of the great Victorian story-tellers.  His personality is never obtruded on his readers.  His humor is not grafted on his scenes, but is a natural outgrowth of his rustic gatherings and conversations.  He relates a straightforward tale, and makes his characters act and speak for themselves.  He selects the human nature, the rural scene, and the moral issue upon which his whole being can be centered.  The result is a certainty of design, a somberness of atmosphere, and an intensity of feeling, such as are found in elegiac poetry.  Natural laws, physical nature, and human life are engaged in an uneven struggle, and the result is usually unsatisfactory for human life.  The novels are pitilessly sad, but they are nevertheless products of a genuine artist in temperament and technique.  His novels show almost as much unity of plot and mood as many of the greatest short stories.