Thomas Hardy's minor novels

Whereas Thomas Hardy's major novels have received ample attention, his minor ones have been singularly neglected by critics. In the present work an attempt has been made to go beyond the treatment of these novels as separate items and to emphasize their character as stages in a progression, expressions of different phases in a process of artistic development. The present study attempts to see these novels in relation to the unfolding of Hardy's literary career as a whole. Underlying this approach is the view that all Hardy's novels, whether denominated major or minor, can be regarded as milestones in his fictional development, and that the concept of major or minor depends essentially on the view of Hardy's novels as a collection of separate individual items, rather than as parts of a single oeuvre.