Stilly - just as well you didn't start with Jude. It was dubbed 'Jude the Obscene' (dealing as it did with possible incest, infanticide, suicide of a child and other jolly themes) and got such terrible reviews that Hardy declared he'd never write another novel again and ever after stuck to bad poetry.

My adopted grandfather was his paperboy back in the 1920's and said that Hardy was the meanest man God ever blew breath into - the stories about the outside toilet and extinguishing the fire if leaving the room for more than 30 mins are all true. He designed his own house with an outside toilet because it was cheaper than digging a foul drain to the house.

LTS