Fiction: The Minor Strain

Abstract

BY well-nigh universal consent Hardy’s fiction is divided into six major novels and a number of lesser novels and shorter works. Unlike most other writers, however, Hardy did not concentrate his minor fiction in the first part of his career and develop an assured “major phase,” but scattered what would ordinarily be juvenilia throughout his work. The major novels are Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). To be sure, the last four major novels appear in a period of some nine years. The great novels of the previous years are, however, interspersed with others of less substance, although two or three of them might make the reputation of a minor writer. In addition Hardy wrote many short stories throughout the period, a number of them quite worthy of being ranked with the major novels but for their briefer form.