You read Thomas Hardy because you don't want to deal with the romanticism, sugar-coated stories that are fed to us on a daily basis, whether through movies or best-selling fiction, and also because you know you're going to get a kick out of his criticisms of Victorian culture. As always, Hardy is a pleasure to read. You get slang, architectural references, references to classical poetry and a pretty melodramatic ending that you wouldn't expect, but then you realize that you were expecting it, but just not in that specific way. Yes, I adore Hardy, he can do no wrong. Read it. Enjoy it. Bask in it.