Poetical Extravagance in Fiction

Abstract

In his eagerness for success, a writer of great resources who is lacking in self-assurance tends to overload his first published work in both style and substance. Hardy did so in much of Desperate Remedies. Only after its tragic climax with the wedding of Cytherea and Manston, when a rather amateurish detective narrative is given its unimpeded course, does it lack for long periods those qualities which are more typical of Hardy, ranging from humour to the creation of tragic scenes through the imaginative perception of setting, character, and chance in unison. Much as one admires these effects, one feels that some at least are an extravagance in such a melodramatic story. A writer with the expertise of Somerset Maugham could have developed such a plot with half the effort and with admirable lucidity, yet without giving us as much to reflect on or as much to appeal to the imagination in scene and character.