‘Never Shut the Gate on Fact’ – Ralph D. Blumenfeld

R.H. Hutton’s review of Tess in the Spectator in January 1892 had attacked its morality.

‘What about “Tay Pay”?’ [T.P. O’Connor3], I asked. ‘Would you employ him?’ ‘Yes’, said Mr Hardy. ‘O’Connor never reviews a book bitterly. He is always

just. He is the most consummate artist in taking the “inners” of a story and presenting it efficiently in condensed form to the reader; and that is all that a reviewer should be asked to do or expected to do’.