ABSTRACT
'no more novel-writing for me!' Hardy had exclaimed when the barbed arrows were flying in his direction. And after Jude he never wrote another. This does not mean, however, that his concern with his novels ended. On the contrary, he now proceeded to give them, in some ways, more careful attention than he had ever before found it possible to give. Now that the creative effort was over, he embarked upon two decades of polishing his work.
