Book Reviews: Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd and The Return of the Native

There is a temptation by the modern reviewer of classical creative works to view those works with a somewhat jaundiced eye, seeing them through the lens of modern interpretations of morality, propriety and cultural mores. I have long fallen into this trap. My first impressions of most non-genre Victorian literature like Thomas Hardy or of earlier works from authors such as Jane Austen were all colored by this modern perspective. For a long time, I considered Austen’s works as silly. After all...