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Title: A mash of cobbled coincidences
Review: This book is similar to a Dickens novel in that it seeks not to reach perfection, but to please its audience at the time. Like Dickens, it is very dry and filled with hard to believe coincidences that make the story hard to swallow. Still, Hardy paints a very lively, realistic and flowing impression of the English countryside in the early days, before the industrial revolution. I would recommend this only if you are obsessed with Hardy, if you have run out of books to read (try Fifth Business by Robertson Davies) or if you are forced to read this as a part of some course.
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