This, called "The Poor Man and the Lady", was never published, but comments from one reader, George Meredith for Chapman & Hall, contained good advice and Hardy's next novel, "Desperate Remedies", was published in 1871. It was not well received, but "Under the Greenwood Tree" (1872) was also accepted, and did better, being praised for the author's delicate evocation of Dorset life. "A Pair of Blue Eyes" followed, appearing as a serial in "Tinley's Magazine" and then in volume form in 1873. J.I.M. Stewart says it "may be regarded as a last apprentice piece" and certainly his next book, "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874), demonstrated Thomas Hardy's mastery of his form. He felt assured and successful enough to embark on marriage with Emma Gifford.
His confidence in himself was justified; he was now being asked for his work. "The Hand of Ethalberta"(1876), however, to some degree disappointed his admirers. His was because the early instalments of "Far from the Madding Crowd" had been likened to the work of George Eliot and Hardy was determined to write something completely different. "The Return of the Native" followed in 1878, written at the Hardys' first home in Sturminster Newton.
The Hardys returned to London in 1878.Hardy, as well as researching the background for "The Trumpet-Major" (1880), was also taking his place among well-known writers; he met Tennyson and Browning and began his life-long friendship with Edmund Goose. He wa taken ill in the autumn of 1880, but succeeded in completing "A Laodicean" (1881), mostly by dictation, and the Hardys went back to Dorset in the late spring of 1881.
The next novel was a romance, "Two on a Tower"(1882) while "The Mayor of Casterbridge"(1886) and "The Woodlanders"(1887) were already in his mind. In 1885 the Hardys moved into their house "Max Gate", the building of which Hardy had superintended, and welcomed their first visitor, Robert Louis Stevenson. Hardy's next major work was "Tess of the D'Urbevilles"(1891), but meanwhile there were a number of short stories, including two notable collections, "Wessex Tales" (1888) and "A Group of Noble Dames" (1891).
Hardy was by now chafing more and more at the restraints that convention was placing on truth in his fiction.
