In Far from the Madding Crowd he recalled George Eliot,
but went beyond her mark in pure English feeling. Tess of the D' Urbervilks and Jude the Obscure are masterly, both in the study of complex character and in the descrip- tion of English scenes. Both assailed conventional morality, and both were temporarily misjudged for that reason. Nearly all the Wessex stories contain passages of unforgettable beauty. The publication of the Napoleonic narrative poem, The Dynasts, made Mr. Hardy in his old age secure of an immortalitywhich was already hardly in doubt. The Cyclopean ruggedness of his other poems had not always succeeded, but here was patent triumph in the same manner. The poem is a revelation of the English spirit. The pessimism of the setting is banished by the deeds of men whom Hardy loved and comprehended.
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