The Return of the Native (1878) and The Woodlanders are generally regarded as Hardy's masterpieces; but two novels of our own day, Tess of the D'Ubervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895), are better expressions of Hardy's literary art and of his gloomy philosophy.

Equally typical and infinitely more tragic is another postnuptial peripetythe scene of the mutual confession of Angel Clare and Tess in Mr. Hardy's great novel.