de; but there are times when he seems to revel in the
extravagant and grotesque.

Meredith is the novelist of men and women in the world of learning, of
letters, and of politics; he is the satirist of social shams; and he
is the sparkling epigrammatist; but he is also the optimist with the
sane and vigorous message for his generation, and the realist who
keeps a genuine rainbow of idealism in his sky.

THOMAS HARDY, 1840-

[Illustration: THOMAS HARDY. _From the painting by Winifred
Thompson_.]

Life.--The subtle, comic aspects of cosmopolitan life, which were
such a fascination to Meredith, did not appeal to that somber realist,
Thomas Hardy, whose genius enabled him to paint impressive pictures of
the retired elemental life of Wessex. Hardy was born in 1840 in the
little village of Bockhampton, Dorsetshire, a few miles out of
Dorchester. He received his early education at the local schools,
attended evening classes at King's College, London, and studied Gothic
architecture under Sir Arthur Blomfield. The boy was articled at the
early age of sixteen to an ecclesiastical architect and, like the hero
in his novel, _A Pair of Blue Eyes_, made drawings and measurements of
old churches in rural England and planned their remodeling. He won
medals and prizes in this profession before he turned from it to
authorship. His first published work, _How I Built Myself a House_,
was an outgrowth of some early experiences as an architect.

Hardy married Miss Emma Lavinia Gifford in 1874 and went to live at
Sturminster Newton. Later he spent some time in London; but he
returned finally to his birthplace, the land of his novels, and built
himself a home at Max Gate, Dorchester, in 1885. His life has been a
retired one. He always shunned publicity, but he was happy to receive
in 1910 the freedom of his native town, an honor bestowed upon him as
a mark of love and pride.

Works.--Thomas Hardy is one of the greatest realists in modern
England, and also one of the most uncompromising pessimists. His
characters are developed with consummate skill, but usually their
progression is toward failure or death. These men and women are
largely rustics who subsist by means of humble toil, such as tending
sheep or cutting furze. The orbit of their lives is narrow. The people
are simple, primitive, superstitious. They are only half articulate in
the expression of their emotions. In _Far From the Madding Crowd_, for
example, Gabriel Oak wished to